General Affection
by brassierePBJ
Summary: Your typical story. Boy meets girl. They fall in love. A baby is quickly made. What happens when the boy's a vampire? What happens when said vampire is killed before the baby's born? Renée doesn't know what's going to happen to her baby, but Nahuel promises to keep it safe from his father. Jasper/ Bella
1. 00 Preface

**Disclaimer: The Twilight Saga is owned by Stephanie Meyer. I don't happen to be her; therefore, I cannot possibly own it.**

**Rating:** Rated 'T' for 'Teen'. May change later.

**Genre:** Action/Adventure, Angst, Family, Fluff, Friendship, First Time, General, High School, Horror, Humor, Hurt/Comfort, Romance, Supernatural, Vampires

**Warnings:** Adult Content, Blood, Discriminatory Language, Violence

**Pairings:** Jasper/Bella, Emmett/Rosalie, Carlisle/Esme, Peter/Charlotte

**Summary:** Your typical story. Boy meets girl. They fall in love. A baby is quickly made. What happens when the boy's a vampire? What happens when said vampire is killed before the baby's born? Renée doesn't know what's going to happen to her baby, but Nahuel promises to keep it safe from his father. Jasper/ Bella

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**00. Preface**

* * *

**1944**

**Nahuel's P. O. V.**

Serena was the one that found Huilen and I. We had been surprised at her visit, seeing as it was just a year after my father's regular check-up every decade or so. But, when she started spewing about how I owed it to the man to "breed for him", I knew something was terribly wrong. Joham and his ever-faithful daughter had been hounding me for little more than half a century to find some human female and give him grandchildren. As if they were more than experiments to the man.

But she was talking about a half-breed that was already in the makings. From a different vampire at that! Who did he manage to get onto his side? Did he wind up garnering the attention of the Volturi to aid in his 'research'? If so, who was the father? Was it Demetri the famous tracker? Or Alec, one of the witch twins? Could it be Aro himself?

I shuddered in revulsion of having to attempt to mate with such a monstrosity. Anything coming from that man was an abomination. Much like myself. Hopefully, I'd be able to stop the proceedings before it got too far. Was she pregnant already? Was the baby already born and being raised by Joham himself? Would he reproduce with her if I refused? Dear God, I hoped not.

I could smell blood before my aunt and I even arrived in the cottage. The woman was pregnant, alright. She would be ready to give birth in a few days or two weeks at most. It all depended on the sex of the baby and how much blood the woman was ingesting.

However, I could say one thing, this wasn't the work of the Volturi. The only dominant scents in the area were my father, my sister, my aunt, this woman, and myself. There was an additional one that was so faint I couldn't determine much from it other than it belonging to the true father of the fetus. Most likely, he found a woman that was already pregnant, killed the vampire, and stole the human. She was terrified and Joham was no where to be found. Typical. He never could stand to be around children. We were too much of an inconvenience.

"Do you speak English?" I asked her. She nodded, her lip trembling. "Do you know what's happening inside of you?" Another nod. "Do you know why you're here?" This time I received a shake. I was right. She had been kidnapped. "It'll be alright. I promise." Somehow, I'll find a way to get this baby away from the hands of my father.

"My baby… will she be okay?"

"Yes, you're too far along for anything serious to happen to it. Anything special you want to name it?"

She grinned at me, the dried tears on her cheeks cracking. "If it's a girl, I was thinking Isabella Marie. Charlie always loved the name 'Isabella,' it was his late wife's name. Marie's my mother's name. If it's a boy, Charles. But, I think it'll be a girl. She's too still to be a boy." I watched with happiness as she cheerily told me all about what she'd gone through with this 'Charles' man, including the day he disappeared. From her tales, it certainly proved my theory of how Joham came across her. It was either that, or her lover had been planning this for months. I hope that wasn't the case.

* * *

I swam for miles, having lost my father and sister somewhere around Rhode Island when I had been going East. Without their knowing, I had switched and went North, to Canada. The day after having met Renée, I took her from them. At first, they weren't too alarmed. How far could I get with a woman who was as big as a house? However, it was when she gave birth, enabling me to move much more quickly, and with much more ease, that they began to panic. Yet, I still lost them within two hours.

Still, I wasn't even twelve hours into this baby's life and I knew I couldn't keep her. I had to leave her somewhere, just for the time being, until I created a large enough diversion that would keep Joham and Serena off of my trail until little Isabella Marie could make her own decisions in her breeding rights. She was still an infant, still able to be molded into the little cretin he created as my sister long ago.

I would have to put a stop to what they were wanting to do to this little girl as soon as possible.

There!

I saw a recently built, but abandoned, home close to the waterfalls. Lucky for me, there was a hollow tree next to the large cabin, and I could hide Renée's daughter there. Sure, she'd leave in a couple of days, but she'd probably head towards shelter. I'd be back before a week passed, of that I was certain.

"Isabella," I cooed. Her nose scrunched up in distaste; apparently she didn't like her name very much. "Bella…" We have a winner!

"Bella dear, I have to go. I have to get the Bad Man to leave. I'll be back. I promise. I'll be back as soon as it's safe. You'll be fine until I come back. Stay near the tree. I'll find you when I can, Little One. I'll be back as soon as it's safe." With a kiss to her forehead, I left. My stomach began to sink as I plunged back into the water and swam the way I came.

I didn't care if I had to kill that man. He wasn't going to touch a hair on her pretty, little head.

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**Ending Author's Notes:** So, I had been toying with this idea in my head. Actually, it's been in my head since I first read New Moon, which was years ago. Hybrids are not a Stephanie Meyer thing only. They're all over the internet. So, I had to use the hybrids SM gave us and work with that.

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On my profile, there is a link to the _'General Affection'_ blog. It has pictures and links to stuff. Check the 'Extras' tab and the side-bar.

Review! Please?


	2. 01 Immortal Children

**Disclaimer: **The _Twilight Saga_ is owned by Stephanie Meyer. I don't happen to be her; therefore, I cannot possibly own it.

**Rating: **Rated 'T' for 'Teen'. May change later.

**Genre:** Action/Adventure, Angst, Family, Fluff, Friendship, First Time, General, High School, Horror, Humor, Hurt/Comfort, Romance, Supernatural, Vampires

**Warnings:** Adult Content, Blood, Discriminatory Language, Violence

**Pairings: **Jasper/Bella, Emmett/Rosalie, Carlisle/Esme, Peter/Charlotte

**Summary:** Your typical story. Boy meets girl. They fall in love. A baby is quickly made. What happens when the boy's a vampire? What happens when said vampire is killed before the baby's born? Renée doesn't know what's going to happen to her baby, but Nahuel promises to keep it safe from his father. Jasper/ Bella

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_**Sunday, September 17, 1944**_

**Emmett's P. O. V. **

I couldn't drive with Rosalie nuzzling against my ear like that. It almost made me wish we were already at the cabin we recently purchased twenty minutes outside of La Manche, Newfoundland, Canada a tiny city around an hour away from St. John's, but I knew she was never this touchy-feely when I wasn't trying to maneuver whatever vehicle I would be driving. Hell, she wasn't an openly affectionate person by nature in the first place.

A young deer darted out in front of my green 1941 Chevy Special Deluxe Convertible, running as fast at its awkward, wobbly legs could carry it, and caused me to slam on my breaks and slide in the snow. There was what looked like a life-like porcelain doll following after it on unsteady legs, leaping from tree branch to tree branch and scurrying up them to keep from falling off, just to dive onto its back so that it could ravage its neck.

Shit! Was that a… No. This wasn't going to happen to my family, to my mate.

"Emmett! No! It's just a baby!" Didn't matter. The Volturi slaughtered vampires for less than the crime of Immortal Children and I knew perfectly well Aro was clamoring at the chance to get his hands on Edward, another gifted vampire for him to own. I wasn't going to sit by and watch as this abomination cost me my mate's and family's life. "Please Emmett! Please! It's not its fault! EMMETT!"

I approached the child quietly, ignoring my wife as she sobbed and screamed at me next to the vehicle. She was going to hate me for the next thirty years, at least. Hopefully I wouldn't have to kill myself and I could just calmly carry it to our cousins in Alaska. "Hey there," I said gently, trying to coax the infant to come to me. Instead, it began growling. "No, no… none of that now."

The child whipped around and I staggered back. Her cheeks had a red glow like humans would from staying in the cold for far too long to be comfortable; her eyes were a deep chocolate with a blood-like red ringing her pupil and gold flecks throughout the iris; her hair, once hidden by the deer, was long and thick, framing her face in a mass of dark brown curls; and her ruby lips were pulled back in a snarl that accented her pearly whites.

As far as I knew, and most of my knowledge came from The Fundamentals of Children classes, newborns didn't have teeth when they were only a few days old or hair that reached their shoulders. And I knew from personal experience, since I was a vampire, that vampires didn't have blood running through their veins to give that deep blush on their cheeks or eyes any color other than crimson, topaz, and black. Even then, an orange only came from someone switching between the human and animal diets; the black came when we were hungry from either blood-lust or plain lust.

Small chunks of raw venison fell from her mouth as her distress was known through her menacing sounds of territorial rage. Quickly, I crab walked backwards until my body was pressed against a thick pine; this didn't seem to appease her anger. Ever so leisurely, the rest of the meat dropped as she crawled deliberately towards me. Her choppers glistened with the bright crimson of freshly spilled blood; her tongue darted out and I could hear the rough texture of the top of it scrape against one of the elongated incisors that she licked. I never thought I would have been frightened of what appeared to be an infant.

Even as angry as she was, she abruptly stopped, reaching her little hand out to me; it was like she was trying to touch the particles in the air around my body. With a giggle, she sat back on her rear and clapped her hands together in happiness.

That was all Rosalie needed to swoop in and start her plea. "See! We can't Emmett. We can't. She's just a baby. I don't know what she is, but she isn't an Immortal Child. She's a baby Emmett. She's just a little baby." I knew she thought I was blind to see the fact that ever since she was changed, she resented a great deal of her existence because of her lack of ability to have children. This was her only change at having the baby she's been wanting since her change.

I never could quite tell her no.

* * *

It took Rosalie almost eight hours to win over the girl. Rosalie sat there, a few feet away from the child, and waited. My woman was nothing if not stubborn. I had been shooed away after half an hour, as I was disturbing the young one, to unload the moving crate that was hooked onto my car.

During my time cleaning the house for our guest, I heard my wife hiss. I almost tore the heathen apart the moment I came out there to find out what happened. The little shit bit my mate. Even still, I had been sent back inside to continue my work as she kept up those eight hours. Apparently, Rosalie had gotten ahead of herself and went to hold her much too soon for the infant's liking. Nah shit. I bit her merely five minutes after I woke up. Don't touch a newborn's food.

But then, when I thought she was up creek without a paddle, I heard the two of them get up and head somewhere close to the house. When I looked outside through the singular wall of windows next to the kitchen, I felt my heart lurch as I watched my wife, all slumped over, be led around by the girl. Her entire hand was pulling on Rosie's right pinkie finger to show her around.

I hadn't been the only Cullen man kicking himself for not being able to give our wives babies. Like Rosalie and our 'mother', I too wanted children. I wouldn't be a man if I didn't Maybe, with a little time and patience, I could love the girl like I knew my mate already did.

The child rummaged around in the dead tree that I should have cut down a week ago when I bought this house and came out with a couple large quilts, a smaller soft looking brown and pink blanket, and a bound leather book. Not three seconds later was she cuddling the baby blanket and sucking on her left thumb. Rosalie got together the leftover items and led the infant inside. It was then that I realized the little girl was naked.

* * *

Rosalie put her finger to her lips in an attempt to silence me when I was already quiet. I would've made some sort of noise to upset her if it weren't for the fact that it took her forty minutes to put the baby to bed.

I had been going through the book Rose brought in, and it turned out to be a journal. Her mother's pregnancy journal. Although most of the information had to do with how much she loved the child and how much pain she was in, I did manage to find out that the child's mother was human and the father was a vampire. I didn't know it was possible to find one's mate in a human or that we could impregnate one.

"I just don't see how he had the control not to break her while they mated."

"Don't be so crude," she scolded with a roll of her eyes.

Trailing after her as she tidied up the house, I continued on with my findings. "She has a name." This made my Rosie pause. "Her mother picked one out for her. Are you going to use it? She did love this child enough to carry her to full term even with her mate begging her to abort the baby."

"What is it?"

"Huh?"

Again, I got the eye roll. "What's the name? I'm not going to name her some asinine creation. It has to be at least dignified."

"Isabella Marie."

She didn't say anything. Apparently it was good enough not to be too stupid to toss out. "What are you going to be doing while she and I are here? You wanted to ki-"

"If you're going to be here, raising this baby, then I want to help. We're married. We're mated. I didn't want to kill her, but I wasn't going to let you sign your death certificate in keeping an Immortal Child. You want to be her mom? Well, I want to be the dad."

This wasn't an Immortal Child.

Her eyes lit up with happiness and a smile tugged at her lips. "You want to be her father with me?"

Laughing, I said, "Hey, we can't both be the father here. How about you be the mother instead?" She leaped onto me, hugging me as tightly as she could while giggling like mad.

"I can deal with that."

* * *

**Nahuel's P. O. V.**

I spent too long leading Serena and Joham to the west coast. At first, all I was trying to do was send them to Florida, but they were closing in too fast and I had to do my best to keep them from catching up to me and figuring out I no longer had the girl. But towards Texas, I could have easily sent it off to Huilen, who was in the Northern part of Mexico waiting for me. The both of them knew she'd never betray me by giving them the child, even if it meant our death. By the time they tracked her down, Little Bella would easily be able to take care of herself and no longer need either of us.

Of course, I lost them along the Gulf of Mexico, but that didn't matter. They'd eventually find this place and find my note.

'I sent her off. I know not where. She's safe from you.'

It was then that I found the coast and jumped in. I had to swim all the way to the Panama Canal before I could get out. A quick feed and some human food was all that was needed before I stole a boat to take to Florida. I'd have to run to Mississippi before hopping in the river with it's name, and swimming my back up it and then running North all the way to Canada until I found that cabin by a waterfall again. Hopefully I wasn't too late.

* * *

**Wednesday, September 20, 1944**

**Emmett's P. O. V. **

A tug on my pants caused me to look down. It was my little angel. She was the most precious thing and had taken a liking to me yesterday; we've been nearly inseparable ever since. I even pretended to take naps just to be near her when she slept. Of course, Rosalie would be putting a stop to that when we had her room all done. I was betting we could sneak a few when my wife was out hunting. With a giggle and a smile, she let me scoop her up. There were very few times she allowed Rosalie to cart her around like I knew the woman wanted to, but Bella tolerated my doing it. In fact, she enjoyed it. It could be because I tickled her once in a while instead of holding her still like Rosie tended to do, but I was thinking it was because she enjoyed cuddling into my chest to fend off some of the outrageous heat she produced.

That and for the sake of cuddles.

"Love you Baby Girl." And I did. I've come a long way from trying to kill her to begging Rosalie not to put a crib in the girl's room so we could continue our 'naps'.

She gave me another smile. "Dad-dy," she said, pronouncing it as if she were speaking two different words, "luh you." Like every time when she called me that name or told me she loved me during the last couple of days, my heart went into my throat and I felt a strong urge to cry. I never thought parenting would be like this. It was supposed to be filled with snot-nosed brats and tantrums, not the sheer delight of watching her first bite of mashed up peas.

That was another Rosalie thing I wouldn't understand. The reason behind demanding every bit of Bella's human food to be home-made. But that was my wife, and spouses were supposed to be strange. She would filter the water and then boil the peas or carrots as the baby cook books tell her to, then mash it herself. Why we couldn't buy the jarred stuff instead, I'll never understand. As long as I didn't have to do it, I was fine. Eventually we'd have to introduce her to donuts and cake. I was looking forward to the joy on her face when she ate the deliciousness of those masterpieces. Or so I've been told. Human food was disgusting to our kind, yet Bella enjoyed it. Well, until she had to eat green beans.

So far, we haven't been experiencing the horror of most children that we've seen in stores, heard about, or read on. Bella was an amazing girl, already understanding concepts way past her physical age; although, she was unable to express herself most times. Just one more detail pointing to her not being an Immortal Child.

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**Ending Author's Notes:** These chapters are difficult to write, so putting together enough to make up a chapter is hard. Still, I try to make it at least _somewhere_ around two thousand words.

* * *

On my profile, there is a link to the _'General Affection'_ blog. It has pictures and links to stuff. Check the 'Extras' tab and the side-bar.

_Review! Please? _


	3. 02 Bite Depot

**Disclaimer: **Stephanie Meyer owns the Twilight Saga. I do not happen to be her; therefore, I cannot possibly own it.

**Rating: **Rated 'T' for 'Teen'. May change later.

**Genre:** Action/Adventure, Angst, Family, Fluff, Friendship, First Time, General, High School, Horror, Humor, Hurt/Comfort, Romance, Supernatural, Vampires

**Warnings:** Adult Content, Blood, Discriminatory Language, Violence

**Pairings: **Jasper/Bella, Emmett/Rosalie, Carlisle/Esme, Peter/Charlotte

**Summary:** Your typical story. Boy meets girl. They fall in love. A baby is quickly made. What happens when the boy's a vampire? What happens when said vampire is killed before the baby's born? Renée doesn't know what's going to happen to her baby, but Nahuel promises to keep it safe from his father. Jasper/ Bella

* * *

**02. Bite Depot**

_**Friday, September 22, 1944**_

**Emmett P. O. V. **

Five days. That's how long we had to wait to get her introduced to humans; our trip to town was the Friday after the Sunday we moved to Canada. That's how long it took me to adore Bella completely. From her little elfin ears, to her tiny squirmy toes, from her giant doe eyes to her wide thunder thighs, the two of us loved her so wholly that we already considered her our daughter in everything but blood. And I was wrapped around her pinkie finger

"We need paint for Bella's room too Emmett." I swear. I already knew this. It was a good thing the town's only hardware store was only an hour and a half drive. Of course, just about everything was about an hour and a half away from our house. "Do you think she'll like lilac or periwinkle?"

"What's the difference?"

"One's a light pastel purple and the other's a light pastel blue-purple."

"Why don't you just give her swatches and let her pick?" God, the baby was right in front of us. She had an opinion the matter too. Why was I the one that was always asked?

"She's a baby. She can't pick. Babies don't understand."

"She understands more than the ordinary baby." Plus, I did not want to stay in the paint section longer than necessary. It was rank and the fumes couldn't be good for little Bella. "Just try it. What's the harm?" With a sigh, she went along with my suggestion. Bella threw both of the colored papers on the floor with an angry huff. "She didn't like them. Pick something else." Quickly, I averted my eyes when Rosalie gave me a glare. More colors, blues and purples, chosen and thrown on the floor like the first two.

"Don't say it Emmett. Don't say it."

It didn't take me long to learn Bella did not want those periwinkles and lilacs; Rosalie seemed to be a slow learner. "Maybe you should try-"

"I said hush, Emmett." Therefore, even more colors shown to Bella, different lilacs and periwinkles, and every one of them rejected, thrown on the floor for me to clean up.

Eventually, Bella got fed up. "Ban."

"Bella, baby, we ne-"

"Ban."

"We need to pick-"

"Ban!"

"Pick the colors for-"

"Ban!" she shouted, kicking her little feet at my wife. "Ban!" Instead of letting my baby scream herself hoarse like she did last night when we put her blanket and quilts in the washer, I gave her the blankie, which promptly was thrown at my wife's face. "Ban."

"I think she wants her blanket's colors."

Rose slowly pulled the brown and pink patchwork pattern blanket off of her head and folded it up to set next to our adoptive child. "Emmett, just stop."

* * *

_**Tuesday, September 26, 1944**_

**Rosalie P. O. V. **

Why was he so much better at this than I was? Isabella loved him so much more than me, and he had been trying to kill her when they met! She absolutely adored him. Trailing after him like some kind of lovesick puppy. At first, I thought it was adorable, but after the fifth day of it, I had had enough. She was supposed to love me; I am the one who saved her. Yes, I did love Bella desperately, like my own flesh and blood, but that didn't mean the green eyed monster known as jealousy didn't attack my heart with its cold calloused hands.

"Ow! No Bella. That's bad." I rushed into the room, hearing him hiss and scold the baby. "Let go Bella. Stop biting me. That hurts!" Ha! Now he knew how it felt to have those tiny little teeth digging into his stony flesh, made all the worse by the fact that she had burning, venomous saliva. "Finally. Ow! No, Bella! No! You're not supposed to bite."

I almost giggled at the sight of Bella dangling from Emmett's jaw where her teeth firmly embedded into him. There was a bite mark on the other side of him, on the joint of where the neck and shoulder were connected. Only a moment passed before I realized what she was doing.

"No, Bella. No!" I shouted at her, trying to assist my husband in dislodging her choppers from the end his jaw. She hissed and scratched at me, trying to keep me away from marking him as her property. "Biting is bad!" Pulling her off proved ineffective, as did the shouts and reprimands. Didn't mean I stopped trying.

Eventually, Emmett had enough of our game of tug of war and snarled at me. "Stop it. You're just making it worse." Looking back at where she was biting, I noticed his neck and shoulder were drenched in his venom. I also saw that she hadn't bitten him anywhere that I had; these were her own marks. I knew that I had never bitten Esme or Carlisle as mine, so why she was claiming him as hers? I was baffled as to whatever reason she would do this. The only time she'd ever misbehaved since the incident when she bit me due to her food was when her blanket and quilts in the process of being cleaned. Sure, she glared at me the rest of the day and refused to let me put her to bed that night, but she had been angry with me for taking them from her.

I took a few steps back until Bella stopped growling at me and waited for Bella to be done with her claiming of my husband. Every time she jerked on his flesh after she bit into him, he would growl at her, which had her whimpering in return. It seemed that she didn't want to hurt him, but she was merely following her instincts. Those instincts were causing him pain, a great deal of pain, yet we still waited for her to be finished with the practice. Sometimes, it could take hours; other times, it could be done with in a few minutes. It all depended on the person and any interferences. I happened to be a big one.

When it was all said and done, Emmett sported seven new bite marks. All of them had been licked and nuzzled by Bella until they healed to a close, but they were all saturated with his and her venom. As was his shirt. What was left of it anyways.

* * *

**Nahuel's P. O. V. **

I should have paid more attention when leaving Bella in that tree. Just where was I? Where had I been? I wasn't close to the coast, I think. I hadn't smelt any sea water anyhow. There was only that scent of worn leather, thick dust, and ageless vegetation. Where could she be?

I can't smell her anywhere! Would she have left if I hadn't come back after a few days? I hope not. Would a family pick her up? That was an almost laughable circumstance. They would all be dead within the hour. Newborns, even our kind, were bloodthirsty and starving in their first year. Hopefully she'll find something to munch on instead of ravaging a town.

Hopefully I'll get to her before someone else destroys her.

* * *

_**Thursday, September 28, 1944**_

**Rosalie P. O. V. **

Was I doing something wrong here? Was I just not supposed to have Bella's love? Even before Bella's claiming, she had been all about Emmett. The two were two peas in a pod. Whatever he did she had to take part somehow. If he wanted to wash his car, she wanted to sit on top and watch. If he wanted to play poker, she wanted to be cuddled up on her quilts next to his side while sucking on her thumb. Bella rarely wanted to do anything with me. It was all about Emmett.

Maybe there was something I was missing. He did things a lot differently than I did. After all, Em was a lot more laid back than me; he could put up with the messes they made and the occasional fit she threw. Mostly, I thought he was spoiling her, not dealing and punishing the misbehavior. Of course, that was another argument I'd rather not have with him again. It seemed he thought she was too young for any physical reprimanding, but I knew that if we didn't nip this in the bud now, we'd have a hard time dealing with it later when she was used to doing it. She might be half-human, but she was still half-vampire.

Fixated on my depression, I was surprised when I felt a tiny hand on my calf. I looked down at the brown haired angel, the air getting lodged in my throat when she suddenly hugged my leg. "Mama…"

Like how Emmett described it, my chest seized up, filling with the warmth of knowing her feelings for me. It was like someone squeezed out all of the bitter hate out of my dead heart and replaced it with happiness and love. "I love you Bella."

Maybe I've been doing things right after all.

* * *

_**Saturday, September 30, 1944**_

_**Emmett's P. O. V. **_

Rosalie had me take Bella out Friday morning when Bella woke up and informed me that I wasn't allowed to come back until tonight or Sunday morning. Once she said something about paint fumes, I was tossing bags into the back of my car and strapping Bella into her seat. Apparently everything had finally arrived for Bella's room. Took long enough. Never have I ever had an order take an entire week to arrive. Apparently living out in the boonies wasn't good for human delivery systems.

If I had been the one to answer the door, I definitely would have had a few words with them before they left. Fortunately for them, I had been busy trying to help Bella try to walk without falling every couple dozen feet. She might be great at traveling through the trees, flinging herself from one to the next, but she was terribly clumsy when trying to walk without the aid of walls or tree trunks. Hopefully that was just a baby thing and she would soon have a vampire's grace.

I gave my baby a little shake, just enough to try to disturb her slumber. "Bella, baby, wake up." Immediately, I was smacked in the face with her hand as she flipped over to try to get away from me disturbing her. "No-no. You gotta wake up, Baby. We've got loads to do today." All I got was a growl as she burrowed deeper in her quilts. "I'm gonna take Ban." This time there was a snarl. "I'm gonna do it. I'm gonna take Ban."

With a huff, she sat up, lifting her arms to be taken away to her bath. But first, we were in dire need of tickles. My thick fingers attacked her sides lightly, sending her into fits of laughter. I had to sit on the bed and pull her into my lap to keep her from breaking the bed with her kicks.

That would be a strange conversation to have with the hotel management. "Why yes, I did break the bed. How? Oh, you know… prostitutes. I'll happily pay for the damages." That was something I'd normally do just to hear the employees make up stories about how wild they thought Rosalie and I were to do whatever destruction to the room that we inflicted. It was just from horsing around and no actual sex would be involved.

Humans could be so peculiar.

Bella gave a frustrated shout, tired of my antics, and I knew Tickle-Time was over. I carted her to the bathroom, stripping her down and bathing her quickly in the sudsy water. Washing her hair had to be saved for last because she always fought through anyone trying to detangle her hair. It seemed like she knew what was coming because she was ready to fight back when I reached for the comb and soap. Bella's lathered hands were frantic as she scratched at my left arm holding her against the side of the tub. I was lucky she wasn't as strong as a normal vampire or I'd be shit out of luck with trying to get this done. Quickly, I loaded down her head with the scented soap and started rubbing it in with the one hand. Once the comb started slipping through her hair, she began her sobs. Perhaps if her hair wasn't so thick and curled, we wouldn't have this problem. I wished Rosalie would let me get it cut, because all the challenges I went through every morning when she received her bath was just ridiculous.

I had to hold Bella up to rinse her off, and then give her a quick pat dry before attacking the rat's nest of a mane she had with the towel to finish drying it. After that was the brush. Yet another time she'd kick and scream. However, once all the tangles were out, she would be just fine. Thankfully, there wasn't much wrestling to be done today, and I managed to get her hair into loose pigtails with bows.

My shower had been taken while she was asleep. Normally I didn't need one everyday, but after laying beside the Sweat Monster for four hours night after night, I decided one was necessary in the morning. Baby sweat smelled less attractive than it sounded. Which was gross all in itself.

At first I thought about trying to get her into the little frilly dress that Rosalie packed for her to wear, but I knew how much she hated wearing loose clothes like skirts and dresses. Especially if it had lace. So, I searched for the overalls that Bella preferred. If Rosie didn't pack that, I didn't know what I'd do. Hopefully there were some pants or something my baby couldn't tangle her legs up in. And just my luck, all she sent me with were sleeping clothes and more versions of that damn dress. It was like she hated me or just didn't care about Bella's preferences. I was hoping for the former.

Looked like I was putting her in a sleeping one-sie until we got to a store I could buy her something to wear. Strange. This particular sleeper wear was big on her a couple of days ago, now it was fitting snug. Did all babies grow this fast or was it a Bella thing? I was going to have to get my own journal to put all these unanswered questions in.

When it came down to shoes, they had to be forgone as I couldn't get her to settle her feet down enough to put anything on her. At least she was wearing some thick socks. If I kept forcing the issue now, I'd have a hard time getting her into the baby stroller. Normally that wasn't a big deal, but if she was already upset, then she would fight everything I tried to do. It was possible I could get them on when I got her out to the car or out of it to get her to the stroller it I decided to use it.

One change of my own clothes later, since I had still been damp from Bella's bath, and a wool cap on Bella's head, and I was ready to head out to the car. Maybe I should have put gloves on her… No, Emmett, if you start this now, you'll never leave the hotel. I checked out of the hotel, just in case I was finally allowed back home tonight. I could always check into one of the other three that this town had.

Thankfully, Bella was agreeable into being strapped down in her carrier, but she still refused the shoes. As soon as I started the car, she quieted down to listen to the vehicle's engine.

Our arrival at the general clothing store went without difficulty. Still, she kicked at me at the sight of shoes. Moving her into the stroller proved more challenging that I thought it would be. Every time someone would pass by us, which was every couple seconds, they would coo at her, complementing me at her beauty. Even if she wasn't my child biologically, it was still an ego stroke to know that they thought this gorgeous little girl came from me. It seemed Bella didn't like people. Or, she didn't care for humans.

This shouldn't be too bad.

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**Ending Author's Notes:** On a side note, I was listening to "Best I Ever Had" by Train throughout most of the writing of this chapter. It has nothing to do with the chapter itself though.

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On my profile, there is a link to the _'General Affection'_ blog. It has pictures and links to stuff. Check the 'Extras' tab and the side-bar.

_Review! Please? _


	4. 03 Strangers

**Disclaimer: **The _Twilight Saga_ is owned by Stephanie Meyer. I don't happen to be her; therefore, I cannot possibly own it.

**Rating: **Rated 'T' for 'Teen'. May change later.

**Genre:** Action/Adventure, Angst, Family, Fluff, Friendship, First Time, General, High School, Horror, Humor, Hurt/Comfort, Romance, Supernatural, Vampires

**Warnings:** Adult Content, Blood, Discriminatory Language, Violence

**Pairings: **Jasper/Bella, Emmett/Rosalie, Carlisle/Esme, Peter/Charlotte

**Summary:** Your typical story. Boy meets girl. They fall in love. A baby is quickly made. What happens when the boy's a vampire? What happens when said vampire is killed before the baby's born? Renée doesn't know what's going to happen to her baby, but Nahuel promises to keep it safe from his father. Jasper/ Bella

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**03. Strangers**

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This was the first time I had Bella all to myself when taking her into town. Before, I had been accompanied by Rosalie. Even then, we had only taken Bella the once, and she stayed with me and Rosie went to get whatever was necessary. She figured I'd screw it up somehow. Such faith she had in me.

Since I was constantly with Rosalie, I had never gotten to experience the flirtatious behavior women exhibited when around a 'doting single father'. Apparently I was hot stuff.

"There's just something about big men and tiny babies," one woman said. At first, I had been confused. Shouldn't the fact that I have a kid be a huge turn off?

"I know!" her friend whispered excitedly. "You have to wonder where the mother is though. A man that good looking has to be married." The two of them sighed in unison. "To see a good father like that… A guy that wants to be with his kid, that's attractive."

I frowned. First, I didn't need this today. I was going to be much too busy dealing with my errands and hoping Rosalie would let me come back home. Second, why were these women looking at other men when they were taken themselves? Third, where were the damn pants?

As I looked through the racks of clothes, trying to find the proper size of something Bella might agree to wearing, the first woman approached me. After hearing how hot and bothered they were at the fact that I loved my child, I checked to see if I was wearing my ring. Yes, thank god.

"Hello there," she said, pushing her chest out more than necessary in an attempt to get my attention. "You seem to be a little lost. Are you looking for anything in particular? Perhaps I can help"

I gave her a sheepish expression, rubbing the back of my neck. Had to appear human after all. "I, uh, yeah. It seems that I can't find the baby pants." Immediately, she giggled. This was the moment Bella decided to voice her dislike of whatever disturbed her by whimpering. Quickly, I plucked her out of her carrier while wrapping her up in her blanket. "Hey there, what's wrong?" I cradled her to me, gently rocking her in one arm while trying to check her over with the other. "You're fine Bella. Nothing's wrong. You're okay."

"She might be hung-"

The woman didn't get to finish her sentence before Bella whined loudly. Apparently my baby didn't like me meeting new people. As the stranger, who was named Molly by the name her friend was calling out, tried to step closer to help me in dealing with Bella, I heard a low growl from my daughter's throat. It was too quiet for humans to hear, but that didn't mean their instincts didn't notice it.

"I… I'm sorry but my friend, I have to go." She quickly left to tell her friend, Lisa, about the ring she saw on my left hand. "Married," she complained.

Yeah, Hun, you wouldn't want me to take an interest in you if you knew what I was.

Once the two ladies shuffled off to the grocery store down the road, Bella began her giggles. "That wasn't very nice. Now how am I supposed to find you some clothes?" All I got were pleased laughs.

Finally, I found the pants and overalls. Now I had to go about getting some that could fit over her bubble butt and fit around her thunder thighs. At least she didn't have short legs to match her tiny torso. Eventually, I found a stack of pants that were long enough and didn't clinch her rear. I went ahead and stuffed all of the pants in that size in the basket because I knew we didn't have any this big. We hadn't been expecting to need them for another couple of months.

Why was she growing so fast? Would she always be this fast or was it just a temporary thing? More and more questions that were unanswered. If it weren't for the fact that Aro would most likely have her killed or captured, I'd go to the Volturi for the possibility of answers.

"So, do you want a purple shirt?" Her nose scrunched up in distaste when I showed her the mentioned clothing. "Alright, how about blue?" Nope. "Pink?" Negative. "Red?" Some lip smacks of hunger, so no. "Brown and green?" That's a smile! Seemed she really liked the color of dirt. Tossing the pile of different brown shirts into the basket as well, I set off to buy the selections.

Once we got to the car, I had to struggle to get her into the clothes I bought. She was never unwilling to take them off, it was just putting them on that I had problems. Her temperature was nearly one hundred ten degrees Fahrenheit and spiked another ten to fifteen when she slept. Honestly, I wasn't surprised that she hated clothes; it had to be stifling.

"You and me both. Next time I'm playing a card game marathon against Mama, we can just be in our underwear." She giggled and clapped at that, liking the idea of wearing next to nothing for the hours I could spend playing games. "When you get older, I'll teach you how to play too." There was even more pleased laughter.

Bella was a Daddy's Girl, that was for sure.

"Ban." Oh yes, I mustn't forget to tuck her in with the blanket before I headed off to my next errand on Rosalie's list of things to do.

"How do you feel about making a run to the bank?" She looked confused, not having been there before. "We've also got to go to the electric company and talk to the gas man." Bella got more and more frustrated, not knowing what these places were or the people I spoke of. "It'll be okay, just a little boring." That was the moment she began ignoring me in favor of staring at the passing scenery.

Lucky for me, these companies were next door to one another and were simple drop offs instead of the rigmarole that I had gotten into in Michelle's Clothing Boutique.

At the bank, a business filled with little old ladies, young mothers, and middle aged ice-fishermen, I was stared at yet again. The elderly women cooed at Bella and complimented me on how beautiful she was while the barely legal to drink females cooed over me at how good I was with my daughter and how their husbands were never this attentive to their children. The only time Bella got fussy was when I was being touched by the single women.

Well, until some thirty-something year old man came close to her, then she became a hushed frantic at trying to get away from him while still being held by me. I switched her to my other side, hoping that would settle her; it worked until he slinked over to that side. Bella became more and more unhappy when she was able to see him and him to see her. Once he was only a few steps behind me, she started that low growling of hers, but he didn't flinch away like the woman in Michelle's did. In fact, he appeared enticed.

Oh hell no. This wasn't happening to my baby. My own growls started up.

A few seconds later, Mrs. Heather, the head banker called me up. I swear, if he cornered me in the parking lot, I would be draining him on the spot. Or snap his sweaty neck. Just try me.

"Are we withdrawing or depositing today Mr. McCarty?" She was a kind woman in her mid-forties that lost her husband a little over a decade ago due to war.

"A little of both. Gotta get all my affairs in order with a new baby."

At the mention of the little girl in my arms, her line of sight immediately went to her, and a smile graced her face. "Wonderful, I'm happy for you and Mrs. Rosalie. Now, are we breaking the bank or are we going to leave a little left in the register?"

With a chuckle, I remembered how my visit went the first time I arrived here almost a year ago. Back then I hadn't been allowed to withdraw over five hundred in cash at one time. She moved us to the back, where her office was, to discuss the matters of my account and other such due to the sheer amount The McCarty-Hale Corporation had invested in this bank.

"Just to be clear, you want the entire five million transferred from the main account," she rattled off the account numbers to me, "to the new Isabella Fund?" Again, more numbers were said specifying the account I wanted.

Every time Bella's full name was mentioned, her nose scrunched up in distaste. "Yes. I'd also like to withdraw five thousand in cash from the main account." She nodded and got to work on my last request quickly.

"You know, one of these days I'm going to figure out what it is you do for a living," she stated as she came back with her arms loaded down in tens and twenties.

"Investments and real estate for the most part."

She sighed, leaning back in her leather chair. "Well, I don't think I could do all that. But, investment?"

"Yeah, I come from old money and I own different portions of property. If you already have a large sum of money, such as the five million I put aside in the Isabella Fund, it won't be able to be touched for fifty years. Put the interest on that at seven and a quarter percent on an increase? It doubles just after ten years. Already at ten million. Believe me, by the time it's able to be touched, it's worth much more than the five I put in there." Well, it wasn't a lie.

We shook hands and parted ways. As I left the bank, I saw that none of the original customers were still in the lobby. We had been in there for a little over an hour and a half. The parking lot was a bit different. The middle-aged man, probably about thirty-seven or thirty-eight, was sitting in his car, a slick looking deep blue from a new paint-job. I could smell the greasy wax he used on the interior and a heavy dose of lavender oil that hadn't been able to come out of the seats.

I could feel him watching as I strapped Bella into her seat and as I transferred money from Bella's diaper bag to the suitcase I had underneath the back seats just for this. Bella noticed him as well and became upset quicker than I had. Neither of us liked him much and I was sure Rosalie would hate him even more than the either of us.

Driving away from the building, took a few turns, I was aware his car was close by everywhere I went. Eventually, I turned down a deserted dirt road that was mostly used by teenagers during the Spring and Summer as make-out central and a quick place to get some ass in the back of a vehicle. Again, his vehicle was at the edge of what would be considered human vision.

Towards the end of it, I pulled on the side of the road, acting like I was having car troubles and couldn't figure out was wrong beneath the hood. It didn't take long for him to follow along, parking behind me and offering assistance. I watched him suspiciously, watching him eye my form for any concealed weapons and my distance from the car.

As soon as he thought it was safe, he pulled out a gun from the back of his pants underneath his shirt, demanding me to toss my keys into the ditch. I played along; I would have found it humorous if it wasn't my child he wanted. Very quickly I found out the reason behind all this. My daughter was much too pretty and would make for a high bid. In fact, he had his boss while I had been in Mrs. Heather's office. Desperate parents were ready to shell out a few thousand dollars to have her as their baby; so far, she was worth about a tenth of a million. Like in the movies, the villain talked too damn much.

Before he had time to pull the trigger, I had him slumped over with my teeth deep in his neck. He struggled for a moment as I quickly drank from him, taking long pulls of his life to flow down my throat. In my peripheral view, I could see Bella watching me; she was clapping her hands, thoroughly pleased with my draining of this… thing. He was no man; he was barely even a human being.

I wiped my mouth on his scratchy shirt, careful to make sure I didn't get any of his blood on my clothes. First things first, I quickly stuffed him into his vehicle before collecting my keys, and locating his . I had to destroy any evidence that this could require some form of investigation towards me or my family. Next up, I drove my car about a mile back towards civilization and ran back. Breaking open his trunk, I saw that he had no gas can or anything else for me to siphon out his gas easily. Instead, I tore his shirt up into one long strip and stuffed the majority of it into the gas tank to soak it. Then, I made a trail so that I wouldn't catch on fire; afterwards, I caused a small crack in his tank and it quickly created a small puddle underneath the car while still dripping. The final step was to take my lighter and set the strip of shirt on fire. Running away, about half of a minute passed before I heard the explosion of when his car shot up in flames. I drove away, making it the twenty odd miles to the beginning of the road before I decided enough was enough. Rosalie might have preferred it if I waited until tomorrow to come back, but I wasn't waiting any longer.

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**Ending Author's Notes:** I have no clue if there's an actual Old Johnson Road in Canada or if a child trafficker was found on fire in his car in Canada. So, if these things have happened or exist, it is mere coincidence.

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On my profile, there is a link to the _'General Affection'_ blog. It has pictures and links to stuff. Check the 'Extras' tab and the side-bar.

_Review! Please? _


	5. 04 Edward

**Disclaimer: **The _Twilight Saga_ is owned by Stephanie Meyer. I don't happen to be her; therefore, I cannot possibly own it.

**Rating: **Rated 'T' for 'Teen'. May change later.

**Genre:** Action/Adventure, Angst, Family, Fluff, Friendship, First Time, General, High School, Horror, Humor, Hurt/Comfort, Romance, Supernatural, Vampires

**Warnings:** Adult Content, Blood, Discriminatory Language, Violence

**Pairings: **Jasper/Bella, Emmett/Rosalie, Carlisle/Esme, Peter/Charlotte

**Summary:** Your typical story. Boy meets girl. They fall in love. A baby is quickly made. What happens when the boy's a vampire? What happens when said vampire is killed before the baby's born? Renée doesn't know what's going to happen to her baby, but Nahuel promises to keep it safe from his father. Jasper/ Bella

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**Author's Notes:** It's not a _Twilight _story without the books' lead man making an entrance sometime.

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**04. Edward**

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_**Friday, September 29, 1944**_

_**Rosalie's P. O. V. **_

I had just gotten done with Emmett's bag when my husband interrupted my packing. "Rosie, what are you doing?" Thankfully, I had already gotten together all of Bella's things.

"Giving you and Bella a weekend together."

"Aren't you going to come too?" Poor guy sounded worried.

"No."

"Are you angry about the car wash?" Not until he mentions it.

"Nope."

He shuffled his feet, nervous. "Why are you sending us away?"

"Bella's things came in yesterday afternoon while you were helping Bella walk and hunt. I want to get her room finished."

"Wouldn't it get done faster with me here? One of us could be putting together furniture and the other could paint." That was his begging voice; he didn't use it often, mostly for when he wanted something badly that he was sure I'd refuse. It was typically not to move somewhere with the family and to go out on our own.

I whipped around, glaring at him. "What the hell is your problem, Em? You act like I'm kicking you out. I don't want her inhaling paint fumes. That can't be good for her lungs." Immediately, he gave me a dimple filled grin. "What? You thought I was leaving you? God no. Who else is going to put up with me? I love you too much, you big lug." Emmett swept me up in a hug and gave me a deep, long kiss that I would have normally refused. Bella started the whimpering she did when she was beginning to wake up.

After a couple more pecks, ones that I found sweet, he went to see to our baby. Only a few seconds passed before I heard, "Dear God! What did you eat? That is just… I think I'm gonna throw up. Oh God! I can taste it!" There were giggles. "Oh, you think that's funny? You can change your own diaper." More giggles and then a shriek. "You just peed on me!"

That was why I loved the man.

* * *

I sighed as I tore open the box to Bella's bed. It was a spacious crib that had removable sides so that it could be more appropriate for a toddler bed as the child grew older. I figured it would last the longest with how long we wanted to stay here. Hopefully we would be able to make it until Bella needed to start school before moving again. Then, maybe, we could move to New York and send her to a private academy. Although, Emmett wasn't too fond of The Big Apple. He preferred hick towns and living out in the country instead. Well, we could always go to France, live on an orchard, and home school her. Either way, we'd have to move in a maximum of five years.

At first, I had planned on doing the main walls a pastel pink with medium brown molding and alternating it with the closet. Then, we'd put down a chocolate colored rug with pink poka-dots. To top it all off, we'd have her furniture mostly white with drawers alternating between the brown and pink. However, when I started thinking about all the things she liked, I knew she'd hate it. For some odd reason, she liked brown. It was a strange color to love, but she did nonetheless. If it was Esme designing the room, it would look like a bubblegum wonderland, no matter the child's preferences. She would have wanted to make it a little girl, princess wonderland.

Instead I'd give her the brown she wanted and plenty of pink accents. I knew Bella wouldn't appreciate all of my hard work now and sacrifice of Esme's princess room, but she'd at least like the colors.

I was off to paint the walls the main color. I started with the left one and worked my way around the room in a clockwise fashion. When I was done, I did the walls of her closet. It was unfortunate that we couldn't paint in vampire speed or we'd have messily painted walls with horrible smears. Not to mention the splatters all over hard-wood floors and ceiling. No, some things were best done at human speed.

Sometime towards the end of my closet painting, the phone in the kitchen started ringing. "Emmett, I'm not done. You can't come back yet."

_"I'm not surprised that you're having marriage troubles with that big idiot, but he's not why we called."_

Why did it have to be the family? "Hello to you too Edward. And I'm not having marriage troubles. He's out running errands and I don't want him messing up my paint job."

_"I see. You're making the humming noise you typically do when you smell paint."_

"It isn't a crime to paint a house." Why did I answer the phone?

_"Oh yes, you get to play Holly-Homemaker while Emmett's out doing errands for you. Sounds like such an exciting life."_ I could feel him rolling his eyes.

With a sigh, I held back the foul language I wanted to use. "Why did you call me?"

_"No, it's Esme. She's having a miniature breakdown. This is the first time you or Emmett have gone out on your own and my vigilante adventure went so horribly. You haven't called yet like you said you would and she's been worried."_

"Well, we're fine. We're happy on our own. We might prolong our stay even. The area's been good for us."

Quickly, the phone was changed over. _"Are you sure you're okay? You don't need anything? If you can't find the things you want, I can do it. Sometimes it can be difficult to-"_

"Esme! It's fine. We're fine. We're just painting the main guest room and thinking about tearing down a wall to make it bigger for her."

_"Her? Who's she? Is it someone we know? Is it Irena? She's been asking about the two of you a great deal."_

Damn it. Why'd I have to open my big mouth? "It's our new friend." Yes! Good lie; well, a somewhat lie. If we told them about having a baby that fed on deer, a baby in general, the Denalis would get involved. Tanya, Irena, and Kate wouldn't hesitate to kill her like Emmett did. They'd be even quicker about it than him in the initial attack.

_"New… friend?"_

At first I nodded, but quickly realized even vampire hearing couldn't manage knowing I did that, heading back to put another coat of paint on what I've already done of the furniture and decorations. I had to set the phone down so that I could work on the wooden jaguar knickknacks I bought. I knew they'd be able to hear me from nearly anywhere in this house as long as I shouted. Nevertheless, I brought all my materials to the kitchen so I wouldn't have to strain. "Yeah. She's new to this life, like, really new, but she's got magnificent control. We haven't told her anything about the family; she gets upset really easy." It would be best to stick to the facts and let them assume for themselves. "We found her about two weeks ago, a newborn. Someone just left her near the river. We're not sure how old she was prior to our finding her, but she was here, alone, for at least a couple days. Maybe longer. She was the only scent in the area other than wildlife."

_"Oh, how awful. How are you handling it?"_

"Oh, she's good. She's been great. It's a challenge, not having raised one ourselves, but we're managing rather easily." I skipped over the cast iron bear bookends. Those were beautiful all on their own.

_"And Emmett? How's he holding up?"_

"He's fantastic. She's really good for him. You should see him. He devotes so much of his time to helping her. I've never seen him this excited and calm at the same time. You'd be proud of him. Of course there was the time she bit me and he was seconds away from tearing her to pieces, but I had just been too close to her food. It was entirely my fault."

I heard the phone being switched to a different set of hands. _"You say her control is magnificent. How so?"_ Ah, Carlisle, the constant scientist.

"Well, last Friday and Saturday, we took her to town." Before I could even explain I was being yelled at for our stupidity of taking a newborn vampire into a city full of humans. "She was fine. Once in a while she'd stare at a person longer than necessary, but nothing happened. Right now Emmett's got her and they're in town again. I sent him away to do some errands and to take her with him."

_"And you're planning on ushering her through her newborn year with Emmett?"_

"What's wrong with Emmett helping raise a newborn?" Even if it was a newborn vampire, he'd do perfectly fine. Just as well as he was doing with a baby.

Quickly, my sire tried backtracking. _"Nothing. I didn't mean anything was wrong with it at all. It's simply that… Emmett isn't exactly the best example of someone able to stick to our diet. He's too impulsive."_

"And that's exactly why he'd be perfect. He'd be able to understand what they're going through. Edward _willingly_ left. He doesn't know what it's like to accidentally drain someone. He was perfectly fine with killing whoever he wanted as long as they monsters mentally. Edward doesn't know the guilt and grief Emmett went through after he drained that woman in her back yard. My husband can empathize while Edward would just hold it above her head that his control is oh-so perfect, like he did with Em. Edward ridiculed my mate for weeks. No thank you."

_"I apologize; I hadn't known. Esme and I will be having words with him once we're done here. But, I'd like to meet her, if that's alright."_

I almost dropped my brush. "I don't mean to be offensive, but it isn't. She can barely stand two vampires around her. Another? She freaks out over new noises. Having a new scent would be bad. Very bad. Do you know how many times Emmett had to honk the horn to get her used to the sound of it? It took him hours. Then the smell of gas? Of people in general? Sure, we can control her right now, but it's a constant wild card. Emmett washed his car the other day and she sat on top and watched; the next day he was playing poker and she broke the table when he made a loud noise. Any of you coming here would be bad."

_"Perhaps if we sent some of our scent there. That would get her used to us faster."_

"Oh sure. Give the girl that screamed her head off for half an hour every time she saw Emmett at first. He tried to kill her when we first saw her. It took her a while just to get her to tolerate him. Sure, they're fine now, but it was stop and go there for a long time. One minute she'd be okay with him being in the house, the next time he moved, she'd have a fit." Okay, that tidbit was a complete lie. She adored Emmett only after a couple of days. "Do not come to us. She can deal with humans and sounds for the most part, but you just can't be here right now. It's too dangerous."

Edward scoffed in the background. _"Dangerous? It's only dangerous for the newborn. We'd have her contained in mere seconds."_ They weren't coming anywhere near my baby!

_"Edward!" _So, Tanya came to visit the Casa de Cullen. _"She has newborn strength and she was just _dumped _there. I'm betting that vampire didn't know two more were coming to the area, nothing would have alerted the person to it. She probably went through the change alone." _I could almost hear the shudder. _"If she was to be contained, you'd have to rip all of her limbs off, and just to be studied when she's already iffy around vampires? Did you ever think that maybe she was a pet previous to her turning? This would be mental torture for her. You're disgusting." _

I growled at the two of them, hearing Edward snarl at me in return. "Look, I don't know what happened to her before we found her, but I seriously doubt she was a pet. We'll call you when she's ready for visits. Just… don't get your hopes up because it's going to be a _long_ time. A very long time." Quickly, I hung up. Just like I knew they would, my phone began ringing once again.

I went back to putting an eager human effort into working on Bella's room. It didn't take me long to finish up as all I had left were the baseboards, molding, and closet shelves. Maybe one weekend I could take Bella out and let Emmett take some paint and put some pink stars up there. That way, at least, he would be doing something Bella would like.

I worked through the night and the next day, not that it mattered for my non-existent sleeping pattern, piecing back together the furniture when it dried, hanging up the decorations. It was as I was finishing up with everything, making sure everything was where it should be, that I smelled it, barely there underneath the fumes. Whoever it was came at a good time; the paint covered up a great deal of other smells in the area, but vampire was a scent that was difficult to mask. Along with werewolf.

A great deal of restraint was used to keep myself from hissing at the knowledge that they had been here for at least part of while I was working and hadn't known of it.

Quickly, I put all of my supplies away, subtly looking through the house as I did so. The kitchen had the entire wall of windows, though the wall wasn't that large. As I passed through that room, I saw a Hispanic woman, the vampire, in a tree as she scoped out the old, dead one that had been Bella's original hiding place.

Her aura, the fibers that made up an individual, human or not, surrounded her like a light fog. It flowed to the ground, much like a loose dress that happened to be a foot thick, and draped around the tree branch about six feet in radius. Auras were common this way, looking like those misty ghosts on television, echoing the body in a much larger form that was still able to be seen through clearly.

The main color was a lovely violet, dark and seductive, one I knew to only belong to supernatural beings, no matter the species. There was also a light teal shimmer flowing through it, representing determination, followed by a similar medium tone to show her open-minded psyche. The next common one was pastel pink that love possessed; whomever she loved so dearly felt the same familial affection. Lastly, she had an unhealthy dose of a gloomy grey; that was one of my most hated colors, as it exposed how depressed she was, how depressed she would be for the rest of her existence.

Suddenly, she looked up, and I felt a sharp stab of a neutral floating sensation. Strange, usually I was hit with an unnatural amount of nausea, though any nausea in general was unnatural for vampires, the warm and fuzzy feelings of the happiness and love that I could typically only get when Emmett wrapped me up in his arms, or a pain that would double over someone unused to feeling it when meeting a new person. She didn't give me the sickness of someone it would never be wise to trust, like Edward, but she didn't make me feel the throbbing that meant she was intending to cause harm either me or my loved ones, nor did she make me feel wanted as I did when I stumbled across Emmett all those years ago. That feeling, and those dimples, was what led me to save him.

Ever so slowly, happiness crept in through my body, yet I was also starting to feel pain through my limbs. I knew this wasn't because of her per say, but what she was here to do.

Emmett. I need to call him, but I doubted he was at the hotel. Bella! He couldn't come with her. We'd have a fight on our hands, but if he didn't come here now, we might have a fight anyhow.

I went to meet her outside, already on the defensive of her invading my territory. "Hello, I'm Rosalie. You're on my property."

It seemed I wasn't the only one wary. "I apologize. When my family visited a few weeks ago, he hadn't been aware of this land being claimed."

"I'd prefer it if you left. Quickly." My words were tense as they left my mouth; I needed my husband, partially due to my fighting skills being mediocre at best. Mostly it was because I was frightened.

A smirk crossed her face. "It seems I cannot as he'll be here soon. Once he mentioned that he saw a couple of other vampires in the area, I knew I had to come by before he did."

"My mate should return soon." I walked away, not leaving my back to her and hoping like hell that I was right.

* * *

**Ending Author's Notes:** Oooo, who ever could it be?

* * *

On my profile, there is a link to the _'General Affection'_ blog. It has pictures and links to stuff. Check the 'Extras' tab and the side-bar.

_Review! Please? _


	6. 05 Seven Years

**Disclaimer: **The _Twilight Saga_ is owned by Stephanie Meyer. I don't happen to be her; therefore, I cannot possibly own it.

**Rating: **Rated 'T' for 'Teen'. May change later.

**Genre:** Action/Adventure, Angst, Family, Fluff, Friendship, First Time, General, High School, Horror, Humor, Hurt/Comfort, Romance, Supernatural, Vampires

**Warnings:** Adult Content, Blood, Discriminatory Language, Violence

**Pairings: **Jasper/Bella, Emmett/Rosalie, Carlisle/Esme, Peter/Charlotte

**Summary:** Your typical story. Boy meets girl. They fall in love. A baby is quickly made. What happens when the boy's a vampire? What happens when said vampire is killed before the baby's born? Renée doesn't know what's going to happen to her baby, but Nahuel promises to keep it safe from his father. Jasper/ Bella

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**05. Seven Years**

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_**Saturday, September 30, 2000**_

**Emmett's P. O. V.**

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_**Continued from the end of '03. Strangers'**_

_ I wiped my mouth on his scratchy shirt, careful to make sure I didn't get any of his blood on my clothes. First things first, I quickly stuffed him into his vehicle before collecting my keys, and locating his . I had to destroy any evidence that this could require some form of investigation towards me or my family. Next up, I drove my car about a mile back towards civilization and ran back. Breaking open his trunk, I saw that he had no gas can or anything else for me to siphon out his gas easily. Instead, I tore his shirt up into one long strip and stuffed the majority of it into the gas tank to soak it. Then, I made a trail so that I wouldn't catch on fire; afterwards, I caused a small crack in his tank and it quickly created a small puddle underneath the car while still dripping. The final step was to take my lighter and set the strip of shirt on fire. Running away, about half of a minute passed before I heard the explosion of when his car shot up in flames. I drove away, making it the twenty odd miles to the beginning of the road before I decided enough was enough. Rosalie might have preferred it if I waited until tomorrow to come back, but I wasn't waiting any longer. _

* * *

My anger rose as I drove and I could hear my steering wheel give in with a little crack. Oh well, it wasn't like Rose didn't have to replace the thing every few months anyhow. The longest I had gone without needing some new part to a car was three months and that was because I had been living in the rain-forest in South America.

I floored it once I was out of town, not that this thing went anything close to vampire speed. Just why did we have to live so far from town? Fucking food. Not that I had sex with the animals I drank or the occasional human I killed. That was disgusting.

Bella whimpered, which had me looking back, checking her over. I wasn't sure if she was having a nightmare, as she hadn't had one of those yet, but she didn't look happy in the least. Was this another one of those moments like with the guy at the bank? Just how did she know about that? Did she find him disturbing or was it a look he was giving her? I sure as hell didn't detect the acidic scent of male arousal. I might not have been able to contain my disgust and rage had there been any of that.

With a glance at the sun, I began kicking myself over the time. It was already so late. Of course, Bella's new unease could be because of how she skipped her normal hour long nap at noon. We had been so busy that it just slipped my mind; besides, she hadn't acted tired until I had started back to go home.

There was a whine from the back seat not ten minutes from the house. "I know baby, we're almost at the house." She whined again. I looked at her, wondering what was wrong, and noticed that she was without her blanket. She just had the thing a moment ago!

"Ban." She pointed to the floorboards, and started kicking in my direction. "Ban." Trying to drive and reach around back behind my seat wasn't the best of ideas, but I did it anyways. I received some well placed jabs from her little feet for taking so long. As soon as I had it within her reach, she snatched it away from me, glaring at me as if I had tortured her blanket. "Mine. My ban." Seemed we were approaching the possessive stage.

"Of course baby."

"We go Mama?"

I almost laughed at how she was putting her sentence structure. "Yeah, we're goin' home to Mama." A slow smile spread across her face, her happiness in seeing Rosalie becoming infectious. She whined again, this time it being the one I had come to associate with her being too hot. I began to open the window only to close it quickly.

There was a vampire in the area.

My entire body tensed up as I gritted my teeth together. Bella's face had been shoved into her blanket so tight it was a miracle that it hadn't been torn apart, so I wasn't sure if she had been able to smell it or not, but she didn't look too upset. "We're gonna have guests, so you gotta stay in the car." Quicker than the vehicle, that smile left and was replaced with an angry scowl. "Now, Bella, baby, we don't know these people. They might be bad people."

"Bad Man?" Now, why did that sounds like a title instead of a man that happens to be bad? "No! No, Bad Man!" She started squirming, breaking the straps of the car seat, so terrified of whoever the 'Bad Man' was that she was in tears.

Pulling over to the side of the road, I grabbed her up, holding her close to me. Jesus, she was more overheated than I thought. If it weren't such a serious situation, I might have made sizzling noises. "It's okay. That's why you've gotta stay in the car. We don't want whoever's there to know you're here." Slowly, she calmed down into a weak laborious breathing pattern with the occasional hiccup.

"You wanna go back in your seat?" Bella clung closer to me, gripping at my shirt so tightly that she was ripping it. "Alright, I'll put you next to me." I set her in the shotgun seat, smiling sadly when she curled up with her blanket, still upset over the 'Bad Man'. As soon as she could carry on proper conversations, I would be finding out who he was.

The rest of the car ride was uneventful and slow. Bella refused to release my hand as I drove, going so far as to bite on one of my fingers when it twitched. I had to hold in my hiss because I knew it wasn't intentional but protective instincts. When I finally pulled up to the property, she started shaking. I swear, if it weren't for the fact that she only went pee once every three or four days, she might have actually pissed herself. This time, she let my hand go without difficulty. If there weren't vampires that might try to kill my wife and family, I would have stayed to coax her out of this unhealthy state.

As I opened the door, her head perked up and she flung herself forward to get past me. "Nan!" I tried to keep her back, to keep her in the car, but she was determined. "Dad-dy, no! Go Nan!" Hell no, I wasn't taking her to 'Nan'. He or she might want to kill her, not that I wouldn't put up a goddamn fight. "Moo! Moo Dad-dy!" Did she just call me a cow?

Suddenly, I was hit by an invisible force in the side of my neck where Bella striking me with her little fists, sending high voltage shocks through my system and had me land on my ass. My body still convulsed, shaking from what felt like electricity traveling in me faster than Edward's top running speed. I couldn't move on my own, just trembling on the ground, so I had to watch as Bella ran off in her frenzied stumbles to find whatever 'Nan'. In the distance, I could hear the sounds of two granite bodies crashing into one another, the feminine hissing of my wife and the another woman.

Then, as sudden as it came on, the substantial pain went away and I was finally able to go after my baby and protect my wife. However, the scene I came across was strange at best. Rosalie and a Hispanic woman were doing battle fairly close to the house; if one of them threw the other, it was possible she'd be flung into my home. Bella babbling away animatedly in her half formed sentence language was such a strange sight I was startled to a stop. Was he the 'Nan'?

He, like the woman, was Hispanic, had long hair tied back in a braid, and wore animal skin clothing. I heard Bella say that damn name again, this time at him, and he nodded, smiling at her happily. Yes, he was Nan.

Soon, the wind shifted, blowing from behind me and towards them, alerting the four of my presence. The two newcomers stiffened instantly while Bella perked up and Rosalie seemed to fight even harder to try to get the woman towards me. Bella was pleased that the four of us were together, though she didn't seem to understand what the two ladies were doing, circling one another with the occasional landed hit. She began bouncing in Nan's hold, clapping her hands enthusiastically.

Then, he growled at me and Bella lost all her happiness. "No, Nan! Bad Nan! Bad! You bad! No grr. Bad." She started kicking him, which caused him to flinch. "Bad Nan!" She had a good hold on him, and he didn't seem to want to cause her any harm, so I went to help my mate with the woman; however, as I moved towards them, Nan started easing towards the trees.

Quickly, I whipped around to face them again. "Where do you think you're going? Bring her here." He hissed, backing away even further. Luck wasn't on his side because my baby began getting angry, which was never a good sign with vampires. "Give me my daughter, now."

"Bella's not your child. I knew her mother. You and that woman are not her parents. They're dead."

I paused, confused as to how he could know anyone that had anything to do with Bella. "Regardless of whether or not they're living, she's my baby. Give her to me or I will end you."

He grit his teeth together, a snarl at the tip of his lips. "No. I promised her mother I'd protect her."

"I can protect her better. We're two vampires that love her like she were our own. If need be, we can have another eight come to protect her as well. She is better off with us. She is safest with us." The man looked torn. On one hand we had much more manpower to defend her; on the other, he was giving up his obligation to the woman that gave birth to my little angel. "If you like, you can stay with us. See that we're the better fit."

"Very well." He kept himself out of arms reach, but stepped closer to me, to hand off Bella. "Huilen, please stop." And like that, we had two guests.

* * *

After all the excitement calmed down, Bella was energized. She refused to settle down and simply wanted to be sat on her quilts in the middle of the living room to play with Nan, who we learned was actually named 'Nahuel'. Quickly, she convinced him into a few rounds of patty-cake, though it had to do more with her making the motions of the game and us explaining what he was supposed to do and say.

"Did you have any questions?" This was Huilen, a short woman, barely reaching five foot, and obviously fit from her pre-vampire days. She had a long face with long features, making her look taller than she was, even if she was tiny. Sometime after settling in our house, she unbraided her hair into long waves, due to her hair being in it for such a long time. "After all, Nahuel is a hybrid, like Bella."

Rosalie looked suspicious of them, but I couldn't hold it in. "She's growing so fast. We've had her for a couple weeks and she looked like an newborn when we found her, and already, she's wearing clothes we hadn't thought she'd wear for another three months. She should still be sleeping the majority of the day and crying at any disturbance, but she's ready to take on the day by six and rarely has any problems. And she bit the shit out of me. What's up with that? I've only ever had the desire to mark my mate. I'm pretty damn sure my sire would have a conniption if I bit his mate."

The two of them began chuckling, at what I'm assuming to be my enthusiasm otherwise that's just rude, and smiled. "The growing is normal. Hybrids are full grown by seven."

"Wait, I'm going to stop you right there," Rosalie interrupted. "Seven? Seven years? Please tell me you mean seven years and not seven months." I winced, wishing like hell it wasn't over in a matter of months.

Nahuel shook his head. "Seven years. By the time the first year is over, Bella will look around four physically. Mentally, she'll be an adult. We are like vampires in many ways, for one is the eidetic memory. Even some our time in the womb is remembered. Although right now Bella is an infant, she will remember this. Her first memory is the sensation of being wrapped up in her mother, the beating heart, the love. It's an endless feeling of that and then it stops. You feel her womb tighten around you; the two of you are starving. She can't hold down any human food, and she can't get you enough blood to drink not to keep you from draining her dry, so she goes into labor. Unfortunately, her body isn't strong enough to help her in the process, so you have to claw and bite your way out of her to keep from suffocating. Typically you don't come out of the normal outlet. You come out of the stomach. Because you exist, your mother dies, and, because of what your father was, you will always remember it as if it happened just moments ago."

My fists clenched, understanding that this wasn't just what Bella went through, but what he had as well. Would Bella, like Nahuel, blame herself for her mother's death? This man was a self-loathing mess, and the woman next to him, although we could tell she loved him greatly, she obviously also blamed him for her sister dying.

"But, yes, the growing's normal. In seven years, she'll be full grown physically. By the first year, she'll look four but will have the intellectual capabilities of an adult vampire. She'll be extremely intelligent, but will lack the wisdom older vampires gain by experience. By two, she'll look about twelve. The second year is painful. Her growing isn't a happy experience. She might wake up screaming in the middle of the night because of her body trying to force on a growth spurt that it can't handle. However, the last five years are spent growing however much she's got left to grow. Hybrids are typically just a little bit younger physically than the mother was when she conceived. Since Renée was seventeen, Bella will stop aging at about sixteen. Even though she will be grown so quickly, sexually speaking, she won't be ready to do anything for at least ten years."

I was startled at his last statement. "Why would you even bring that up? She's just a… baby and you're taking about sex? That's disgusting."

"You wanted to know about the growth. And the sexual nature is important, especially for the females." Sighing, I dropped my head into my hands. This conversation was one I wished I could avoid, but it needed to be known. If Rosalie had to sit through it alone, she'd repeat it back to me and exaggerate everything. "The youngest I've known for it to start is ten years. Her ovulation will only happen once every few years. Every two to five years. Now, it'll take somewhere around two weeks, and any unmated male in the area that she isn't related to is going to go frantic. She's going to smell absolutely amazing to them, vampire or not. They're going to want her and if she's had any previous people trying to woo her, they might tear apart all the others to prove their worth in taking her. It's the only time she's fertile. We believe."

I tried my best to push his words out of my head while my wife looked interested. "So, in about ten years, she's going to be guy-nip for any unmated boys that think she's cute? Basically, any guy without a mate is going to be on her like an alpha male wolf and a bitch in heat." Oh dear god, that is not happening to my baby. I'll be sending her to a cabin the middle of the woods and guard it.

"I… yes. However, the starting date varies. I have a sister, Maysun, who is older than I am, and she didn't begin hers until she was about a century old. My eldest sister, Serena, began when she was about ten."

"Have any of them had a child too?" Rosalie, damn it, I'm too young to be a grandfather.

He shook his head. "Maysun has conceived a few times, but would lose the child shortly afterwards. I hate to say this, but I think her losing the children was intentional. Our father, Joham, thinks of us as experiments in a way. It's possible she didn't want her children to share her fate. Right now, we're half the potential of a vampire; however, he somehow thinks that if a hybrid and a vampire were to create a child, then that child would be superior. Or if two hybrids were to have children. He's insane. I don't know what he wants to do with these children, but it can't be good."

There was a long silence as we processed their, mostly his, words. Bella was fine with this; she enjoyed the quiet, but that didn't mean she liked seeing her parental figures upset. Slowly, she crawled over, seeing as she was much better at that than walking, and up on the couch to sit between us.

Huilen smiled. "Such a precious child. You seem to love her very much. She's lucky that it was the two of you to find her and not one of the many prejudiced vampires we've met."

My next words were agreed on between the two of us without thought. "No, we're the lucky ones to have her as our daughter."

At least I wasn't being asked why my eyes were red.

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**Ending Author's Notes:** The meeting with Nahuel was supposed to be in chapter three, but shit got extended as I kept writing more and more. Oh well, hopefully this will mean for a longer story. No promises.

* * *

On my profile, there is a link to the _'General Affection'_ blog. It has pictures and links to stuff. Check the 'Extras' tab and the side-bar.

_Review! Please? _


	7. 06 Gifts

**Disclaimer: **The _Twilight Saga_ is owned by Stephanie Meyer. I don't happen to be her; therefore, I cannot possibly own it.

**Rating: **Rated 'T' for 'Teen'. May change later.

**Genre:** Action/Adventure, Angst, Family, Fluff, Friendship, First Time, General, High School, Horror, Humor, Hurt/Comfort, Romance, Supernatural, Vampires

**Warnings:** Adult Content, Blood, Discriminatory Language, Violence

**Pairings: **Jasper/Bella, Emmett/Rosalie, Carlisle/Esme, Peter/Charlotte

**Summary:** Your typical story. Boy meets girl. They fall in love. A baby is quickly made. What happens when the boy's a vampire? What happens when said vampire is killed before the baby's born? Renée doesn't know what's going to happen to her baby, but Nahuel promises to keep it safe from his father. Jasper/ Bella

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**Author's Notes:** Still don't have a chapter from Bella's POV. She's just difficult to write it seems. Besides, this summation works better in third person.

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**06. Gifts**

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_**1954**_

**Narrator's P. O. V. **

Ever since Nahuel came to 'save' Bella from Emmett and Rosalie, she hadn't been allowed to leave the property. It wasn't due to their distrust of him and his aunt; it was because they found out why he was originally so against the couple having little Bella.

His father.

Joham wanted to use Bella as Nahuel's breeding mate. Or to use her to make a different kind of hybrid, a higher percentage of vampire. Neither of the new McCarty friends were sure of what he wanted to do with the girl anymore. Still, the man wouldn't get her. Every time Nahuel's father was brought up the hissing and growls began, expressing their sheer anger at the man for what he was doing to such young human women, to his mother, and what he wanted to do to Bella.

The five of them stuck together, at least one vampire with each hybrid at all times. They didn't need Serena, Joham's loyal daughter and servant, finding where they were. Typically Huilen stuck by Nahuel's side while either Emmett or Rosalie spent their time around Bella. Even when she hunted, it was with her parents or someone brought food to her; the latter occurred much more often. Rarely did they let her go outdoors, and, when they did, she had to stick close to them. Preferably to be carried by Em until she had gotten too big for that to be a reasonable request.

Everyone knew she didn't enjoy it like she once did, spending so much time around them. Before, she was allowed to play as she desired. Now, she had to have both of her parents' approvals to just slide around in the snow outside. Sure, as soon as she was able to read, it's all she did. The adults had to make routine trips to town to get more books and could never supply her with enough to last her until the next time they left to get them. She'd been taught everything they could think to teach her, from every language they knew to car maintenance.

Bella was an ever curious little girl and not in the fashion that most children were. There were no "But why?" questions from her. She wanted to know the reason behind everything. Why were the seasons the way they were? What was the use of oil in a car? Were there better alternatives to paint? Why was milk so important to the body when growing? Anything and everything she could get her hands on.

Occasionally, they would go to different lesser colleges at the start of the new quarter and the four of them would mention the different classes they were going into and hadn't known identification would be needed to get their supplies. They'd always get their way, as vampires could 'dazzle' humans into whatever they wanted. Usually, this was used with human drinking ones to lure away their potential victims from crowds. They would still pay for the books, of course, but Bella would go through them at lightning speed and politely plead for more. Medicine? She's studied what they could get for her. Mechanics? Rosalie and Bella had their 'Mother-Daughter Bonding Time' together going over those books. English, Mathematics, History? She'd read everything they could think of to get her.

The only thing she refused to do was learn how to play an instrument. She didn't want anything to do with the piano or guitar; she didn't want to learn to sing either. There had been too much she had overheard come from Edward's mouth and she knew that he was a music enthusiast. Strangely enough though, she wanted to learn ballet and classical dancing. No one informed her about the Tango or Salsa because they knew Emmett would vehemently refuse that request.

Then, there were her desires to have Huilen teach her to fight. Oh, Emmett just about had a conniption when she agreed. She was just a child, even if she could understand everything the vampires could. Hell, they were all pretty sure she was smarter than them as well. Still, Bella got her way and convinced her mother to do the same. Since Emmett refused to fight against the hybrids or his mate, Huilen and he had a grand ol' time refining skills against one another and learning a great deal while they were at it.

It was needless to say that the couple weren't missing their family as much as they thought they would when they first left to live on their own. After that initial phone call from Esme when she had been so worried about the two, they agreed to make some form of contact once a week. Typically, it was Rosalie, as Emmett couldn't stand to listen to Edward, who was the one who answered the most.

The first time the bear of a man called up the family, the mind reader had been the first to get it. That was a fun adventure. Within ten minutes they were shouting at each other, over what, no one was sure, but Rosalie had a good guess. Raising newborn vampires. Edward still thought he would be a much better fit to guide someone into the Vegetarian Diet. According to the Golden Boy, Emmett would lead the girl into the ways of a harlot. A new phone had been put on their list of necessary items, just under Bella's books and clothes, after that and they refused to take any calls for the next month. Even when Rosalie explained the situation to Carlisle and Esme, she knew whatever punishment they would dish out to him wouldn't be half of what he deserved. Their soft spoken 'mother' was too lenient towards him and their sire never believed that it was as bad as anyone stated. He thought the couple were exaggerating his statements and using his words out of context. As Emmett would say, "That's some dang bull-honky."

In all the times that Huilen had spent time around Rosalie while she spoke to the family, her respect for them had lessened greatly each time she overheard their conversations. Everyone knew that if the Cullens ever decided to visit, she and Nahuel would be taking Bella to explore other places. Eventually, the mates would catch up to them and travel as a coven as soon as they could get the 'family' off of their asses.

Still, one day they would need the help that the Cullens could offer. Or, well, their cousin's help. Kate would be the best one to go to for assistance since her gift seemed so similar to Bella's. It was one they worked on as frequently as someone could tolerate the pain. Both Rosalie and Emmett had been shocked by Katrina Denali before and it was never as painful as what Bella could do. With Kate, you felt like you had stuck a wet finger in an electrical socket. With Bella, it felt like you were swimming in a pool and a bolt of lightning hit the giant metal rod that was in the center of it. Kate could put someone out of commission for a few seconds and you could get used to it in time. The more often you were hit by Bella's shocks, the more painful they got. No one was sure if it was because it was the same people being attacked by it or if it was strengthening from use. Over the past ten years, it had quickly gone from able to drop someone within instant's use to begging for death and everyone refusing to do anything to work with it.

But, that wasn't the only aspect to it. The electricity surrounded her in a dome, completely impenetrable. No matter how the vampires tried to break past, it never cracked. Within a year, Bella had managed to get it to work similar to telekinesis. She could wrap it around an object and cart it to whatever destination she pleased as long as it was within her range, which had been tested to find out was about six miles and becoming even further as the experiments went on. However, as Bella explained it, the dome wasn't its natural state. Normally, it was form fitting, like a second skin more durable than vampire flesh. It only expanded when it felt she was threatened or she focused on it.

Apparently, it had been around her when she had been within Renée's, her mother's, womb. It strengthened the normal vampire strong placenta internally to protect the both of them from Bella's kicks and squirming. Unfortunately for Renée, it was too strong for her human body to handle and as the contractions began, her gift, which everyone assumed was a shield, retaliated. It spilt open the placenta much like a knife slicing through the edible portion of an avocado, and then Renée's flesh. She was dead within seconds of labor beginning.

Even though they thought the shield was only physical, they knew she had to have a different gift for the last aspect. Mimicry.

When Emmett informed the trio of the Child Trafficker that he drained, something they all commended him for instead of shaming him like the Cullen family would have done, they were baffled as to why Bella would have felt such a strong dislike of the man. The explanation was simple. "I didn't like his colors." At first they were confused. Then, upon her detailing the ghost-mist that everyone had, Rosalie knew Bella had her gift. They spent months going over all the different variations the vampire had come across and their own as neither of them could see their own auras. What every color meant, what their combinations could mean.

However, the way she viewed it was a bit different than how Rosalie saw others. When someone was in love, Rosalie saw the pink they wore around the area of their heart. When Bella saw someone who was in love, like her parents, was in the direction of that person, but still lingering in the same height as the heart, and it intensified as the person was closer. It also judges others' emotions in a secondary layer outside of the character summation that the woman had. These colors weren't as 'ghost-like' as Rosalie's gift but still held that fog. Occasionally, she could touch them with her mind and manipulate them to turn into a different color, a different emotion. It could make someone more obliging to whatever she wanted or infuriate someone at the drop of a hat.

Lucky for this band of people, Bella wasn't the type to use this against others, but they still worked on it as best they could. The more she played around with her gift, the quicker and more subtle she could get it to work. Since emotions were entirely different than a persona, they took a lot more work to understand. Also, emotions flickered in and out. Everyone felt a variety of things all at once, but they had one or two main emotions that could change within a second as their thoughts changed. The difficulty was changing them, directing them, at the same speed as if it were a natural occurrence.

This gift deepened further to where if she lingered on 'touching' that particular emotion, she could hear the whispers as to why they might feel that particular way. One day Huilen was especially depressed and she grabbed the dark grey that surrounded him like a rain cloud, and found out how saddened she was by the loss of her sister. There were days that she could focus on nothing else but the loss she felt because of Joham impregnating Pire. That aspect was something she only did to happy emotions as the longer she tried to understand why someone felt that emotion, the better chance it had for it taint her emotions.

The last aspect of her gifts was the 'tasting'. Her mind was permanently extended, sending out invisible threads to shove their way into the psyche of others. Everyone's mind had their own signature to them, a 'flavor' all their own. No one was any the wiser when she did it since it wasn't a painful talent like the electric shield. It informed her of where another was and if anyone who had a gift came into her range, it copied it and adapted to where Bella would always have the upper hand. Nahuel assumed that it improved itself because, physically, she would never be able win in a fight against a vampire, so it had to ensure her existence through the talents she came across.

None of these gifts were too much for her to handle, although it could be a bother when she tried working with them to increase their capabilities. Normally vampires would only have one gift, and since she had multiple, she had to learn how to use them side by side. In the beginning, it had been fairly difficult. Since she had been so young, she had been easily distracted and the abilities might snap back to her, which was painful for her when working with the electric barrier.

However, with the five of them living the past decade in the same house Nahuel hid Bella near plus making semi-regular appearances in the town, they knew they would need to move on soon. It wasn't like with the Denalis where they could live in one location for five hundred years because their visits to town were widely spaced apart by different vampires to locations about a three or four hour drive away.

No, with how quickly Bella was growing and all the things she required, they had to make a visit once every other week at the minimum. Even now, being full grown for three years, the rest of the group still had to make semi-weekly trips into town to buy all the items she requested.

Although, no matter how grown Bella seemed to get, Rosalie was still 'Mama' and Emmett would always be 'Daddy'.

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**Ending Author's Notes:** Shoot me some questions, I'll be happy to answer them, but I won't be giving away any spoilers.

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On my profile, there is a link to the _'General Affection'_ blog. It has pictures and links to stuff. Check the 'Extras' tab and the side-bar.

_Review! Please? _


	8. 07 Chevy

**Disclaimer: **The _Twilight Saga_ is owned by Stephanie Meyer. I don't happen to be her; therefore, I cannot possibly own it.

**Rating: **Rated 'T' for 'Teen'. May change later.

**Genre:** Action/Adventure, Angst, Family, Fluff, Friendship, First Time, General, High School, Horror, Humor, Hurt/Comfort, Romance, Supernatural, Vampires

**Warnings:** Adult Content, Blood, Discriminatory Language, Violence

**Pairings: **Jasper/Bella, Emmett/Rosalie, Carlisle/Esme, Peter/Charlotte

**Summary:** Your typical story. Boy meets girl. They fall in love. A baby is quickly made. What happens when the boy's a vampire? What happens when said vampire is killed before the baby's born? Renée doesn't know what's going to happen to her baby, but Nahuel promises to keep it safe from his father. Jasper/ Bella

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**Author's Notes:** A Bella POV, finally!

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**07. Chevy**

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_**May 1955**_

_**Bella's P. O. V. **_

I would miss Canada. We had spent ten years here, almost eleven, and it felt like home. Nevertheless, vampires were un-aging and my aging ceased at seven, we had to move on. One day, sixty or seventy years from now, we would come back. I didn't know how I'd live without snow surrounding me almost year round, but my father assured me I'd learn to love New York. Slowly, I taped up the box full of the last of my encyclopedias. My family left me in charge of taking care of packing up all of my books.

Eventually we did have to take down that wall just to add in a library for me. At the next house, we'd have to do the same or just set one aside specifically for my books. Neither of my parents understood my craving for knowledge but they accepted it as a part of me. It was why they were willing for us to move to a place where I could attend college. Unfortunately, Nahuel and Aunt Huilen didn't come with us. Instead, they left to go back to South America. Emmett and Rosalie, though I never called them by their given names, took some convincing, but, eventually, they agreed for us to visit them after a couple of moves. In a good ten or fifteen years. I was already looking forward to it.

But first, there was the world to see. Finally I'd be let out of the house. I'd be able to see a town. I'd be able to explore.

I knew that if anything ever went wrong, I'd be locked up again, but it was worth it. At least now that we lived in a larger populated area, there would be more selections for shopping. There would be bigger bookstores. I wouldn't have to wait two weeks just to find something else to read. We'd be about twenty minutes from town and could get a new selection so much easier instead. Oh, this was just fantastic!

Plus, my father said I'd be able to get a car. Anything I wanted. I wasn't sure what I'd choose, seeing as I hadn't seen much other that those two trips into town when I was still an infant and Emmett's 1941 Chevy Special Deluxe Convertible. Still they were certain I'd find something up to my standards. Of course, since I'd mostly be traveling around in Mama's 1954 Studebaker Commander, I wouldn't need anything just yet. I had however long I was going to take to decide.

Placing my last boxes in the back of the moving truck that Daddy would be driving, I sighed. Most of what we were taking wasn't furniture like most humans would do. We could buy newer pieces there that were up to date in the fashions of this decade instead of the ones Rosalie bought back in '42 when my parents first decided they wanted to leave 'The Cullen Nest'. Whenever someone referred to the coven in that particular manner my giggles would start up.

Oh, the Cullens. No one spoke ill of them, trying to let me form my own opinion of them by the many conversations I listened to while one of my parents were on the phone and the understated stories told by my mother. Emmett would rarely speak of Edward due to his rising rage and hatred towards the boy. I might only be ten and eternally sixteen, but I was more mature than that child. Even still, Esme and Carlisle seemed kind if one ignored the obliviousness held on to towards their Golden Child's inflated ego. Perhaps one day I might meet them but with how protective Rosalie and Emmett were, I seriously doubted it.

Either way, Edward wasn't someone I wanted to associate myself with.

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**June 1955**

"Bella! Come downstairs. You've studied enough for tonight. It's time for dinner." Oh jeez. And I was just getting to the good part. Rosalie and Emmett had bought me textbooks relating to what all was taught in the four years of high school to ensure that they had covered everything. I had. After I realized this, I went digging through my library to reread the same subjects a bit more detailed than what public schooling offered.

I could hear the phone ringing downstairs in the kitchen. We've never moved it from that place as it was such a good location for us. It seemed that the Cullens had impeccable timing in calling when I was either about to eat dinner or a snack. Sometimes they would ask about me, ask about my progress in resisting the tasty humans. Never had I felt any bloodlust towards them, in fact most disgusted me. Rarely did I feel bloodlust at all. After much deliberation, and worry on my parents' part, we thought that perhaps this had to do with my shield. Surely if it could protect me from harm it could also protect me from myself.

As I went downstairs, quietly taking one at a time instead of jumping down them as my father would do, I heard the remnants of a whispered argument between my mother and whoever was on the other side of the telephone.

"Just because you might be ready to see her doesn't mean she wants company. We're happy alone with the three of us."

_"Rosalie, the two of you might be happy there without your family, but she might want to see other people." _I recognized this as their sire.

There was a rummaging noise as someone stole away the line from him._"Give her a chance to know us. To love us like you love us." _I saw a smirk grace my father's face. He knew my feelings towards that group of vampires._"We're just asking for a chance." _

Finally, Emmett spoke up. "If she wanted to talk to you she would have. When you call us or we call you, she's usually right next to us. She's had plenty of chances to 'get to know you' or talk to you. There's always the possibility that she simply doesn't want to know your 'family.'" He spat out the last word with disgust, almost equivalent to the revulsion I felt for the Golden Boy.

"Besides," Mother continued, "we know you're wanting her to be a companion for Edward." My metaphorical hackles rose at this knowledge. This I hadn't been told. "And with everything she's heard from him, she wants nothing to do with him. She'd sooner rip him to pieces before she'd contemplate being his companion." My parents knew me so well.

_ "Had Emmett been telling his tales?" _

"No Carlisle. Just like when we'd be on the phone with you and she listened in, she heard the things Edward said to us first hand. Including the 'Harlot' bit. Trust me when we say she would destroy him before she would allow him to touch her. She has higher standards than that-"

_"That's enough Rosalie,"_ Esme scolded. _"You might not care for your brother but that doesn't mean you have to speak so cruelly of him." _

I purposefully stepped on the last step, the one Father hadn't had a chance to fix yet, and it squeaked loudly. Neither of my parents startled, most likely having known I was there. However, I could hear the stressed breath Carlisle took and the small gasp Esme made and it pointed to their unknowing.

"Like we said. She's usually listening in. We don't mind it; we have nothing to hide. There are no secrets in our house." She paused, looking over her shoulder at me. "Bella, would you like for Carlisle and Esme to visit?"

My answer didn't need any thought. "No, I don't want them here."

"Well, would you like to visit them? I'm sure they'd be very accepting."

"No." The less people that knew about me the better. Besides, Edward wouldn't stay away for long. From what Father told me, he was always looking for someone to usher his 'dominance' over. Mostly it was trying to prove he was better than everyone due to his mind reading gift. "I'll talk to them on the phone though, if that's okay."

Both Rosalie and Emmett smiled at me, their emotions didn't take a negative turn, so I knew they didn't disapprove of this action. "Hang up when you're done."

"Yes Ma'am." The two of them smiled at me before leaving me in the kitchen. I knew that they'd either be off doing whatever it was they did when they were alone or hunting down a meal. Seeing as they ate a week ago, it would most likely be the former.

_"Hello Bella, we've heard a great deal about you."_ Yes, all except what makes me so different than the average vampire. _"We've been wanting to meet you for a while, but we can settle for just talking to you for now. It'll a pleasure to get to know you." _ Dear, dear Esme. It will be a long time before I ever allow you to meet me, if the time ever comes.

"I've heard a lot about your coven as well."

_"Family, Bella. We're a family. Covens stick to being one or two, maybe three. We have six. There's Carlisle -he's the patriarch- and me. I'm the matriarch. Of course you know Emmett and Rosalie already. They're part of this family too. They're our children. We have Edward; he's a mind reader. Contrary to what they tell you, you'll like him just fine. He's a wonderful boy." _

"That's only five members to your coven."

_"You as well. You're part of our family too. And it's a family, dear, not a coven."_ I gritted my teeth together in irritation. _"Darling, you should stop that. It can damage your teeth." _

"I thank you for your offer in joining your coven, but I must decline. I have a wonderful one where I am."

_ "Oh?"_ I could almost heard the head tilt in her confusion. _"I wasn't aware there was another group of vampires where Emmett and Rosalie decided to live. Do we know them?" _

"There isn't."

_ "I'm afraid I don't understand Dear." _

"We are our own coven, Mrs. Cullen. Although they may associate themselves with you, we have been our own coven for the past near eleven years. We are the McCartys, not the Cullens."

There was a giggle at the other end of the phone. _"Don't be silly, little one. Emmett and Rosalie are part of our family. They haven't left us. You're part of it too. Soon, when you meet Edward, you'll see that as well." _

"I'm sorry, but they're waiting on me to head out and hunt. I have to go. Goodbye." Mother came back into the room as she heard the metal screech in protest of my hand crushing it in my fist. The pat on the back she gave me did nothing to quell my frustration and anger at the air headed woman. I had thought she was kind, but it appears her obliviousness didn't stop at overlooking her son's arrogance. "Do you think Daddy might be up for a hunt?"

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**August 1955**

Two weeks. In two weeks I'd be beginning school. Today we were going to get our books for the semester. I had chosen my major to be a nurse. Honestly, I'd rather study to be a surgeon, but no one would believe whatever age I told them I was. If you were going to look like a teenager forever, you couldn't pick a field that took years in college to make your potential career. Maybe next time I could pick architecture or education.

Unfortunately for Mother and me, being a mechanic was still considered a man's occupation, so Father was the one enrolling himself in Mechanics. The two of us knew he was going to hate it, but he was taking the classes so that we could study it with him. If he paid attention while we read it out, he might actually pass the subject. It wasn't like he had to actually study like humans would.

Then there was Mother. She didn't enroll in the same college we did. There was New York's famous Fashion Institute of Technology school close by that she had been eyeing ever since our move here. Apparently I needed to learn about fabrics. I didn't even like fashion or clothes. Something that hadn't changed from my days as an infant was my love of being in the nude. Clothing was too hot no matter how little I wore. Still, I wasn't going to run around naked with my parents around. My father had already seen my parts far too often from when I was a baby and couldn't look after myself. I didn't understand why Rosalie couldn't have done it instead.

As we passed by a used car dealership, I was struck with the sight of what I considered to be vehicular beauty. It was a scratched up red truck with big, rounded fenders and a bulging cab. Automatically I knew it was Chevrolet's Advanced Design Series pick-up truck. They didn't start manufacturing these until post-World War II and stopped making them sometime last year. These beasts were a very popular sale in its eight year run. They had stock engines producing a mere 92 horsepower and a three-speed manual transmission powering only the rear wheels. The trucks weren't fast, not by any means, but Chevrolet bragged about its fresh air heating system and larger two-piece windshield that would give an increase in viewing distance. The heater wouldn't be used much, if at all, so that aspect didn't matter much to me.

"Stop the car! You've got to stop." I didn't even wait until the car was at a stop before leaving the vehicle to run out into the slow moving traffic.

"Bella! Get back here!"

I didn't. Sure, I was moving a little too fast for a human my size, but people would simply assume I was an athlete. I skidded to a halt and embraced the hood of the truck. "You're perfect. I love you."

My parents waited until the road was clear before rushing over to me. Rosalie whipped me up off of the truck and shook me by the shoulders. "Bella, what in the world were you thinking? You could've gotten hit by a car! What would we have said when you weren't even hurt? People would notice when a tiny slip of a girl was run over by a car and didn't have a scratch on her." With every sentence I was yanked about again, for the longer sentences I was given an extra hard shake.

"But… Mama, she's perfect. I think I'll call her Louise. She looks like a Louise, don't you think? Don't you just love her? She's amazing." I detached myself from her hold and hugged the truck once more. The two of them looked at me as if I had lost my head. I knew this wasn't a typical vampire vehicle. The supernatural kind preferred luxurious and swift vehicles, not swollen beasts.

It was Father who spoke first. "I think she's more of a Bertha."

My giggles began and I flung myself at him. "Oh, I knew you'd love her, Daddy. You said I could have any car I wanted and I want this one. Mama and I can fix her up and make her pretty. You'll see. She's perfect."

Soon enough I was the owner of a red 1953 Chevrolet.

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**Ending Author's Notes:** No, Jasper didn't make an appearance in this chapter. Hopefully, he'll be introduced soon though, but it might not be how you people are hoping.

* * *

On my profile, there is a link to the _'General Affection'_ blog. It has pictures and links to stuff. Check the 'Extras' tab and the side-bar.

_Review! Please? _


	9. 08 New Jersey

**Disclaimer: **The _Twilight Saga_ is owned by Stephanie Meyer. I don't happen to be her; therefore, I cannot possibly own it.

**Rating: **Rated 'T' for 'Teen'. May change later.

**Genre:** Action/Adventure, Angst, Family, Fluff, Friendship, First Time, General, High School, Horror, Humor, Hurt/Comfort, Romance, Supernatural, Vampires

**Warnings:** Adult Content, Blood, Discriminatory Language, Violence

**Pairings: **Jasper/Bella, Emmett/Rosalie, Carlisle/Esme, Peter/Charlotte

**Summary:** Your typical story. Boy meets girl. They fall in love. A baby is quickly made. What happens when the boy's a vampire? What happens when said vampire is killed before the baby's born? Renée doesn't know what's going to happen to her baby, but Nahuel promises to keep it safe from his father. Jasper/ Bella

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**Author's Notes:** You're in for a real treat today.

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**08. New Jersey**

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_**March 1959**_

_**Rosalie's P. O. V. **_

Sometimes having a child in your home constantly could be a downer. Sure, my little baby was a blessing most moments, but there were other times when I needed alone time with my husband. Our wedding had been in 1940, and although we hadn't consummated our relationship yet, Emmett had been willing to go through with the ordeal. Even still, we didn't have sex. Neither of us corrected the family when they thought we went at it every time we were alone together; it was easier than trying to explain the state of our relationship.

That state being that I was terrified of sex. Royce had done a real number on me. When I told Emmett what happened to me, what my ex-fiancé and his drinking buddies had done to me, he had been personified fury. This scared me, yes, but it was also comforting. I was certain that had I not already tortured and slaughtered my rapists, he would have. In fact, he might have been even more gruesome about it. Unlike Carlisle and Esme, he had the desire to seek retribution for my violent end. Even though there was a great deal I had against Edward, I would have to hand that to him. Where my sire and his wife sneered at my killing Royce and my other would-have-been murderers, Edward saw my destroying of them as fitting and congratulated me.

That was just another reason for my need to live away from the family. Esme should have been the one to understand me, seeing as her own husband beat and raped her regularly. Carlisle, a man who claimed to love me enough to think of me as his daughter in everything but blood, felt no longing to dish out my justice. He would have been satisfied with them having to live with taking an innocent woman's life.

I couldn't live around that. Their disdain. That wasn't something I wanted my daughter raised around either. I was sure that if it had been Esme raising Bella, she would have brought her up believing however the husband treated the wife was how it should be. It was the era she lived in. But that wasn't how I wanted my baby to live. I didn't want her thinking to be beaten was deserved for being a woman. I didn't want her to live in fear of a man who should want to protect her.

She would grow up knowing she was worth more than how I was treated. She was something that had to be earned, fought for. But, I digress.

Emmett and I had barely had any time to ourselves. In fact, the only times we would spend away from here were when Huilen would agree to watch her for us to hunt together as a mated couple. Even then, it was only for three or four hours. Since our move to New York we'd been able to have date nights, going out to dinner, which included a quick hunt, and a movie, after we cleaned up. We knew Bella was more than capable of taking care of herself, but we were frightened of leaving her to her lonesome for more than that amount of time.

Tonight though… Tonight was different. For the past two months, Bella had been insisting we spend a night outside of the house. It wasn't that we thought she'd might leave us soon, because she wouldn't be that we knew of, but we couldn't keep existing this way.

We'd made plans for driving out to New Jersey for a hunt, then we'd cleaned up in a hotel we'd go see a film or a walk around the park. When morning came around, we'd head back. I knew Bella was right, besides, she was getting frustrated at how much time we were spending crowding around her. If it had been me, I would have felt like I was drowning in their attention and revolted against the people keeping me wherever I was. But, Bella was very well behaved and rarely did anything to displease us.

She was the picture perfect child and I doubted it had anything to do with how we raised her. Bella was amazing on her own.

"I'm fine Daddy. I'll be fine. I know what hotel you're staying at and I know the number. I'll call if I need you, believe me. You know I'll be okay until tomorrow, right? There's no reason to worry. I'll be inside studying next to the phone until I go to bed. You can call anytime you like." Emmett opened his mouth to say something but was quickly silenced by a hand over said mouth. "I love you so much Daddy, but you're getting on my nerves."

"Come on Big Boy," I called out from the passenger seat. They spent another eight minutes with their goodbyes. By the time Emmett made it to the car, I heard the front door lock click. "Don't you dare, Em. We're smothering her. She needs time to herself. Besides, it isn't like she can't defend herself. She's brilliant; you know that. You helped make her that way. Do you doubt yourself?"

He shook his head, tossing a dimple filled grin my way. "Course not. She's my baby after all. Of course she's brilliant." That was an ego stroke he didn't need. Emmett would be calling himself 'brilliant' for the next week.

We made it to New Jersey in record time with me wrapping my arms tightly around his muscled torso. In our near twenty years married together, we had never taken that final step in our relationship. First had been my fear, and while it was still there when my distrusting instincts from my last human days took over the rational side of my brain, as of this last decade it was simply from a lack of opportunity. As previously stated, sometimes having your child in your home constantly could be a downer.

It hadn't been in our plan to hunt down any predators, seeing as they weren't as populous as herbivores, but we managed to wrestle down a sizable bear. While hunting down a small herd of elk, I was tackled into the ground by a petite girl. I quickly overpowered her, and kicked her in the shoulder, sending her back away from me. Even since moving here my fighting skills had improved greatly compared to what skill I had previous to meeting Nahuel and Huilen.

We hissed at one another as we took in each others' forms. I knew she was sizing me up as I was her. She was surrounded by a great many colors, vibrant and pleasing. The strongest being what all supernatural being has, the seductive violet. Next was a sunny yellow, representing friendliness and optimism. After this there was an orange, one associated with bravery, and a dark crimson, almost black, that I knew was her erogenous side. She also had a brilliant aqua for kindness and medium teal for open-mindedness. With how radiant these colors were, I almost overlooked the deep strawberry like pink that was just as intense as the purple she held although underneath it all. This girl was mated.

She wasn't the one I had to worry about; her mate was. So where was her mate?

Straightening up out of my crouch, I decided to make amends. "Hello. I am Rosalie McCarty. We hadn't known there were any vampires in the area. Have you already claimed this land?"

She was much slower than I had been in retreating my aggression. Leisurely, she stood, flipping her little longer than shoulder length wheat hair out of her face. "Yes. I see that your eyes are golden. You feed on the animal diet. It's a pleasure to meet another of a similar mindset." I noticed her small orange eyes. Was she in the midst of transitioning to our way of life or had she fallen off the bandwagon?

"I see. Well, my husband and mate know a few others that take to this life. Have you met many others?" Did 'Daddy Dearest' turn her to be Edward's mate since we didn't hit it off?

The girl shook her head, her straw hair tussling softly against her stony flesh. "No, you are the first our coven has come across with golden eyes. Only two of us take to your diet. My mate indulges in the traditional diet while I go back and forth between them to keep the orange." I could see the allure. If only my pride in never having ingested any human blood would allow me to do the same as she. Then we would be the few with the continuous secondary color.

"Of course. Now, I shall find my mate and we will take our leave." I wanted to get out of here before she was no longer as welcoming.

The lips of her wide mouth quirked up in a mocking smile. "I understand. Unfortunately, your mate is preoccupied at the moment. My mate has been keeping him a bit busy."

I squinted my small eyes at her before running in the direction my mating pull directed me. This girl, her age probably being about the same as mine, followed me, but didn't pursue any further hostility. My husband wasn't too far off, having chased off the other half from the herd I had been intending to feed on. Once I scented Emmett, I listened out for the sounds of battle but found none. There weren't any noises at all. Was he already dismembered and waiting to burn him? Surely I would have felt it if he had been destroyed. I didn't smell the beginnings of a pyre. If they reduced us to ashes, I knew by nightfall tomorrow, Bella would come. She would avenge us.

Purposefully, I scraped trees as I went, to give her some knowledge as to where the area was. They wouldn't be able to burn it all by tomorrow night. Besides, I hadn't mentioned another coven member and I knew my Em wouldn't either. Neither of us would risk anyone finding out about her.

I saw my man in the distance. The was okay. He was… He was missing his arms!

* * *

**Jasper's P. O. V. **

"Come on!" The pixie seer kept tugging me along, dishing out her pathetic hisses from her aggravation at my unmoving feet. I'd heard more aggressive noises from a ferret. "Stop that! They'll be here soon We've got to meet our new friends." Her excitement flowed through me with welcome ease.

Suddenly it came to an abrupt halt as fear rushed in. "Alice! What is it? What do you see?" I didn't shake her like Charlotte tended to do' shaking her didn't quicken the vision or pull her from it. It just pissed the little lady off.

"They're going to kill them. Peter and Charlotte are going to kill our new friends." She was upset. Well, I would be too if my friends were going to kill people I loved. She'd been having visions of Emmett and Rosalie for weeks, months. Alice already loved the people from how much joy she saw them bringing our coven for the short amount for time they would be with us. "Jasper please. We have to stop them." She took off in the direction her visions were taking her, with me right beside her.

"Alice, you know how paranoid Peter is. Perhaps it's best if we let them."

"We'll die, Jasper. We will all die." Worry wasn't the first emotion I felt, no it was confusion. And not my own. "I don't know how, but we'll die. If we let them destroy the McCartys, something will come for us. I can't see it. I don't know what it is. It's this blurry darkness. Afterwards, all I can see is blackness. Charlotte will go first, then Peter, then me. It'll save you for last. I don't think it wants to destroy you, but it will and easily. It'll be over within a few minutes."

"Little Darlin', there isn't anything I can't handle. We'll destroy it before it can harm us. Trust me." I was the Major for Christ's sake. The God of War. I've never lost a battle and would never. Whatever would come would have no chance of survival. .

"You're not listening to me! Their coven mate will kill us. There is no other future I see if they're destroyed. Nothing but the blackness of our death. None of your plans or battle strategies will work. We will die. Whoever they've allied themselves with is powerful, much more powerful than you and Peter put together. Do you want to be the reason your brother is killed? Because, that's all I'm seeing with the current decisions." Like her voice, her emotions were frantic. She was in alarm while filled with hysterical worry and distraught terror.

I didn't understand. "Why would you vision such happiness yesterday at their arrival if things would take a huge one-eighty?"

"I think it's Peter. He's too territorial. The things I had been seeing was because his instincts hadn't taken over yet. If he didn't react the way he did, everything would have gone as pleasantly as I saw."

"Are you sure it's his instincts and not his gift? Perhaps these peop-"

"It's not his gift. He knows he shouldn't destroy these people but his instincts don't care. They want the bigger male destroyed. It's like a damn pissing contest." I hadn't even realized it but my mind had gone from assisting my brother in these newcomers' destruction to helping Alice save our coven. "Thank you. Thank you so much Jasper. I don't see us being great friends anymore, but I see us surviving. Moving on. The Cullens will come here in a few months and everything will be fine. Everything's back on track."

"I'm glad you'll be meeting your mate soon Alice. You deserve that happiness." I gave her a genuine smile which she responded in kind.

"Thanks. Tanya's going to be great. She is great. She's amazing."

Within a few minutes we ran straight into the field that our two coven mates were in and the two strangers that accidentally caused such a ruckus.

I could understand why Peter reacted the way he did. The man, Alice said his name was Emmett, was a large and muscular fellow. His throat was covered in scars, some were fairly small and looked like they belonged to of the mouth of a child; his shoulders and ribs were more of the same. Had I not been plastered in even more, I might have felt some sort of fear towards him. As I eyed him, I noticed him clenching his teeth, most likely to suppress his growls, and his wide mouth would pull in his already thin lips into an even thinner every time he did so. Parts of his dusting of facial hair was gone due to the bite marks on his wide, angular jaw. His nose was slightly crooked, looking like it had been broken while human and improperly set, but that didn't take away from the define structure it had and how it led to his high cheekbones and full cheeks. Quickly, his sparsely filled eyebrows scrunched up in anger as I continued to size him up.

Had she not already been mated, which even without Alice having inform me of Rosalie's unavailability I would have known by the deep bite mark on her neck, I might have tried to pursue this woman. She, like her mate, was tall. The tallest female I had met as of yet. She was possibly just an inch beneath six feet and had long legs that made her look a great deal taller. Her hair might've been thin, but it was long in loose golden waves. She had very generous breasts, ones that I knew Charlotte and Alice were envying. It seemed that petite women didn't have such large bosoms. Like her chest, her hips were very voluptuous, giving her that perfect hourglass figure women sported in the late twenties and early thirties. Contrary to the rest of her body, her facial features weren't as large. She had small golden eyes with thick eyelashes reminding me of French feather dusters, a tiny nose with a slim bridge, and thin eyebrows with definite arches. Although the rest of her face was so small, her lips were plump with the perfect cupid's bow. The major flaw she sported were her long feet. This woman could possibly be the most beautiful lady I had ever met in my many years. A modern Aphrodite.

As for their emotions, I was mostly filled with fear, conviction, hatred, worry, protectiveness, and love. This affection was for each other, obviously, as it was passionate and romantic, but there was another that was more along the lines of a familial basis, possibly for the coven mate that Alice mentioned, and it was just as intense as their love for each other. I could understand their terror, revulsion, and anxiety; they didn't know whether or not they'd make it out of this or not. Also, that protectiveness must've been for one another as mated couples almost constantly felt it constantly even if they weren't in immediate danger. It was the faith that I was confused about. What could that be for?

Slowly, I stepped towards them, trying to shove as much submission into Peter that I could to calm down his impulses. Once he was settled, Charlotte would follow suit. "Hello, I apologize for my brother's actions. He's a tad paranoid when we meet new people. We're the Whitlocks." Immediately, they were overflowing with understanding and a larger dose of fear. "I'm sorry that he attacked the two of you. I'm sure that when he comes back to himself he will apologize himself."

The woman, Rosalie, nodded, taking a step in front of her husband. "I understand. If we had known this area was claimed we would not have visited. When we arrived, we didn't scent any other vampires around. We're sorry for intruding on your land. If you could give us my husband's arms, we'll take our leave." At the mentioning of their departure, my brother snarled viciously. No matter how much calm and passiveness I pumped into him, the aggression and adrenaline was still prominent.

Suddenly, the negative emotions that our two visitors felt disappeared only to be switched over to peace and happiness; their love surged higher than anything I had ever felt while thankfulness trickled in. Like with them, Peter's violence vanished so that the emotions I was sending him would become effective. My brother wobbled unsteadily, leaning on Charlotte for support. He blinked sleepily, feeling a hefty dose of lethargy. Immediately afterwards, she felt more concerned for his wellbeing that she normally would and started fretting over him quietly. Strangely enough, I wasn't confused in the least. Sure, I had no clue what the fuck was happening, but I was more compliant than anything else.

"Sure Darlin'." I gathered together the arms Peter removed and split into multiple pieces. "Would you like help puttin' 'em back together?"

"No thank you. I was lovely meeting you and your coven, but we'll be leaving now. Good day." With that, they ran away towards the main road that was barely used as the sunlight of a new day broke through the tree line. While I still felt the need to please them, I was struck with the urge to stay where I was. Following them would be very bad.

Just as strangely as the need to please appeared, it left along with the desire to remain here and Peter's drowsiness.

Quickly, my brother's anger spiked. "What the fuck was that Jasper? Why the fuck did you stop me? They were on our land! We had the right!" A snarl left me, something that had been happening less and less the more time I spent getting used to this new diet. "I know Alice thought they'd we'd all be friends and that shit, but did you see him? He was covered in almost as many bites as I am. It wouldn't have been safe."

"And we would have died."

"Oh please, Emmett was a bit of a challenge, but I won. Rosalie would have been even easier."

This time, Alice interrupted. "You don't understand, Peter. They were more than just a mated pair visiting the area to feed. They had another member to their coven. I'm not sure what it was, but he or she… they're powerful. I couldn't see the person, but if we ended Emmett and Rosalie, they would have come after us and killed us."

There was no disbelief like I expected, instead there was only reluctance. "I know. I've been known." He sighed, slumping to the ground with his hands fisting his hair and elbows on his knees. "I've known about her for a while."

"Why would you come here if you knew you'd die?" This just wasn't like my brother.

A humorless laugh escaped him. "I didn't think I'd die. Nothing told me I would. In fact, coming here was going to be good. I didn't understand how having the desire to kill them and nearly doing it would be good for our coven, but it would be. We were never going to be 'the best of friends' like Alice was seeing."

"You asshole!" Alice shouted. She was always one meeting new people and gathering acquaintances.

He growled at her, which shut her up quickly. "I didn't want to drive them away, but it was necessary. I know now why. It's her. It was always her."

"Do you mind explaining who 'her' is?"

"Bella. Well, Isabella Marie McCarty to be exact. She was here, in the trees, five or six miles away. She's what stopped me from tearing them apart when they wanted to leave, what made you hand over the arms, what kept Alice from telling you she couldn't see the future, what kept Charlotte from attacking when I snarled at them."

If I weren't pissed at him and puzzled at why Alice was blind to the future, I might've felt sorry for the bastard. Charlotte didn't seem to have that problem as she continued trying to soothe away his worries and frustrations. Alice, like me, was mad at the man.

"At least right now our future's back to where it's supposed to be. The Cullens are moving here in January. And… I think the McCartys are moving away in the Summer before they get here. I don't even think it's because of us, though we pushed their date up some."

I ran my hand over my face, trying to shove back my blonde locks from my face. One day I was going to have to chop them off. If shoe polish didn't smell so bad, I might've dyed it as well. I couldn't stand the fact that Maria, my sire, loved my honey blonde hair and the scruffy beard I once had. As soon as I was sane enough after Alice arrived, I asked her to sort through different visions to see the best way to shave it off.

"Let's just go back to the house. We'll deal with this mess a different day."

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**Ending Author's Notes:** Oh look! It's Jasper.

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On my profile, there is a link to the _'General Affection'_ blog. It has pictures and links to stuff. Check the 'Extras' tab and the side-bar.

_Review! Please? _


	10. 09 Salivate

**Disclaimer: **The _Twilight Saga_ is owned by Stephanie Meyer. I don't happen to be her; therefore, I cannot possibly own it.

**Rating: **Rated 'T' for 'Teen'. May change later.

**Genre:** Action/Adventure, Angst, Family, Fluff, Friendship, First Time, General, High School, Horror, Humor, Hurt/Comfort, Romance, Supernatural, Vampires

**Warnings:** Adult Content, Blood, Discriminatory Language, Violence

**Pairings: **Jasper/Bella, Emmett/Rosalie, Carlisle/Esme, Peter/Charlotte

**Summary:** Your typical story. Boy meets girl. They fall in love. A baby is quickly made. What happens when the boy's a vampire? What happens when said vampire is killed before the baby's born? Renée doesn't know what's going to happen to her baby, but Nahuel promises to keep it safe from his father. Jasper/ Bella

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**09. Salivate**

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_**Bella's P. O. V. **_

Something was wrong. I knew my parents, my father especially. No matter how many times I assured the man, he would've checked in by now. He was a family man and a worrier. We came before everything else, so for him to not have called me by now, with it nearing midnight, something went terribly wrong. I fled the house, forgoing my truck. If they were in trouble, my baby wouldn't be able to dish out the speed necessary to get there as soon as possible.

What if they stumbled across other vampires? Although Mother was a great fighter, she wasn't fantastic. She could take an average vampire in a fair fight. Father was much better and fought dirty, but he relied on brute strength far too much. What if they came across more of those werewolves that they found back when they lived in Washington? Those beasts were made to slaughter our kind. If a single hair was harmed on their heads, I would destroy the people that touched them. No one hurt my family. With that conviction, I tried even harder to get there before anything serious happened.

As I approached the forest they were supposed to be in, I took to the trees. I would be much quieter up here and less expected. Plus, it was easier to launch into one of my death rolls if I came from above. When I finally felt their minds in my mental range, I released a sigh only to muffle a snarl when I felt even more. Quickly I came to a halt.

My parents had the worst of luck. Not only did they come across some more vampires, but they found four of them, three of which were gifted! An empath, a clairvoyant, and a seer. The empathic abilities weren't anything new, but assisted the variation of the gift I received from mother to work with quite a bit more ease. I'd have to work with that to see how it differentiated from the vampire's talent. The seer, that was something I appreciated having run into, though, soon, I would probably regret. As for the clairvoyant, I wasn't sure what this particular gift was doing. It was forcefully shoving information into my head, bits and pieces of data that I didn't need. Honestly, it was confusing.

_'Maria's on the move. She's ready to take over Texas again. She wants The Major.'_ Alright, but who was Maria? Who was 'The Major'? _'The Mexican Goddess of the South. The God of War. Jasper Whitlock.'_ I'd have to ask Mother and Father about that.

_ 'The Cullens are coming.' _Well, that was nice to know, but when?_ 'January 1960.'_ We'd be gone by then. We weren't planning on leaving until the following August, but oh well. Would we need to leave immediately? _'When the school year ends.'_

_ 'Michael Amitz will fail his math test tomorrow.' _Still didn't make it any less confusing._ 'Buy into Sony.' _I wasn't going to ask why.

Suddenly, a part of my mind was taken over by a vision, still leaving me able to maneuver, but a bit dazed._ A blonde haired man with a little more scars than Emmett snarled. After a minute or two of deliberation he charged forth. My father was already missing his arms and couldn't defend himself. Mother tried to aid him, protect him, but she was unable to as a medium height woman with a petite build rushed her. She was far more skilled and quickly bested her. The short girl, a female with a halo of inky locks screamed at them, begging them to stop. The man next to her, a fellow who was nearly my father's massive height charged into the battle, trying to tear his coven mates off of my family. It was already too late, the wheat haired girl began the pyre. The little woman tried fighting her off, but her gift wasn't working. She was defeated almost as soon as the battle started. Very quickly, limbs were tossed into the fire, and the pieces her mate would toss her.__ "We're going to die. It's all your fault Charlotte. It's all your damn fault! We're going to die."_

I almost missed the tree I was leaping towards as I heard the snarl in the present. Immediately, I refocused on the psyches of my parents and noticed that even though I couldn't see the auras of their persona and emotions, I could still sense them, almost taste them like I could find the flavors of their mind. No more would I have to meet someone to know what they were like and what they were feeling. Well, if I could do that, could I still manipulate their emotions from this distance?

I mentally tugged on different fabrics from their psyches, receiving tastes along the way, and mentally seeing the color it associated with surge from the person like a reversed lightning bolt heading to the sky. At the same time, the emotions touched my lips, dancing across my finger tips. Strangely, I noticed these same 'fabrics' were sheer, floating in the air towards me in very tall threads, reminding me of how Father once described to me as the Aurora Borealis.

Working with the ones connected to my mother and father, I pulled at the dark and sickly red one until it burst. Immediately, I knew they felt no more fear. Quickly I began yanking on the other negative emotions, hatred and worry, until they disintegrated into the air. Afterwards, I tried forging a new emotion in them, something light and wispy, peace. It worked! This time, I tried using an already active line, their love towards me, and flooding it with even more. That worked too! Then, I worked on the snarling male. I could feel that the empath was trying to calm him, overflowing his system with peacefulness and submission; unfortunately, it wasn't working how he was probably wanting it to. I searched out his mind, since I wasn't used to feeling it as often as my parents' it was a tad more difficult, but nothing I was sure I couldn't handle. I grabbed a hold of the light but stormy fabric, feeling a lot like worn cotton, and wrenched at it multiple times until it broke; unlike with Emmett and Rosalie, his didn't fall apart easily, it was more temperamental to work with. Even still, I tried taking a hold onto the malevolent and dark thread, feeling it bite into my mind and scratch at me. My skin felt like it was on fire! His aggression and violence was volatile and painful. I worked as quickly as I could, putting all of my strength until I felt it explode back at me.

I was knocked off of my perch and began falling to the ground, I quickly tried righting myself, twisting in the air until I found another branch, much larger, for me to land on. Thankfully, I was too far away to be heard and if they did, they would simply think I was an animal. Not losing a beat, I took a dark and stagnant looking fabric, feeling almost silky to the touch and began shoving it into his mind. The lethargy set it quickly. There was a momentary surge of surprise from him, an empty looking blue that felt a bit rough and tasted salty on my lips, before it vanished._ "Peter, are you okay?" Charlotte questioned her mate. He nodded, trying to shake off the tiredness but it was ineffective. "What did you do to him Jasper?"__ "I didn't do a damn thing."__ She turned her aggression towards my parents, ready to start up the firing squad. "What did you do to him?" she screamed, Jasper rushing forth to hold her back._

I just couldn't get a break! Quickly, I enhanced her concern for her mate, hoping that would keep her from trying to attack my family. I could see confusion, this scratchy abyss that began bubbling up like sludge from Jasper's mind and felt like powdered chalk stuck in my throat, choking me; I swiftly squelched it and replaced it with helpfulness, a grassy green that felt like my fluffy and soft quilts at home and tasted like a warm, hearty soup that was surprisingly a little bit sweet.

Soon, I sensed Mama's and Daddy's minds heading back to the road to their vehicle. After a few minutes, I followed suit. I didn't know what happened to the emotions I forged into them, but I knew the broken ones wouldn't be returning the moment I left. They'd have to get angry all over again.

Reaching the road, I saw my parents were already gone, the seer gift showing me that they were headed back home. I charged after them, much faster than Mother's car so I easily caught up. When I knew I would be successful, I launched myself at the hood, feeling my knees and palms make little indents in the metal as I landed with a loud bang. Feeling their distress begin again, I held back my hair with one hand and leaned over until I could see their faces inside of the car. I smiled at them apologetically and received a similar one in kind.

"Move to the back, Daddy. I'll help you with your arms while Mama drives." Someone retched open the window for me, most likely Rosalie seeing as Emmett's arms were in pieces, and I easily slid inside and twisted myself over the seats to get into the rear with my father. "Mama, you should study my anatomy books, it helps with realigning the parts." Looking through the near dozen pieces, I tried to figure our which one went on first.

"I never hope to get in another situation like that where that kind of information is needed."

"Still, better safe than sorry. I'll give them to you in a couple of days after I finish rereading them. Would you like them, Daddy?" I got a rough nod in return. "Did they rip out your tongue, because I don't know if I can put that back on…" He shook his head. "What's wrong?" The moment he opened his mouth, a mass amount of venom spilling out, I knew. His body was trying to make up for the venom he had already lost from the lost parts; unfortunately, a great deal of it was heading to his mouth first. "When we get home, Mama will get you something to eat. It'll help quicken up the process."

Finally having sorted through it all, I put the piece to the shoulder up to his mouth for him to salivate on before moving on to the next one. If I was the one to do it, my venom would burn him, more-so than another vampire's venom they've said, and although Mother's venom doesn't cause him pain, she was driving and it still leave scars. Since Emmett would be providing the saliva, he wouldn't hurt and he wouldn't be scarred up from the mass amounts of liquid needed to mesh the parts together. Of course, some of them had been bitten off and were already marked from Peter's slobber, so we couldn't do anything about that.

Each of the pieces had to be held on while they fused together and took about forty-five minutes a piece. It was a rough estimate seeing as some were tricky and took a while longer. And, if any of them were done wrong, I had to rip them back out mid-fuse to turn them differently. This nearly caused a crash the first time I did it. Father snarled at me loudly, spittle flying everywhere, and Mother whipped around to see what was going on. It wasn't until I frantically informed her that we were about to drive off of the road that she turned back around and told us to warn her next time.

Needless to say that we weren't done by the time we arrived at the house. I continued working on him, this time switching over to the couch for comfort. After Mama got him a couple of rabbits to feed on, she switched over to Drool-Duty. Daddy didn't mind the scars as long as it was over with quicker, and having to produce the venom himself slowed the procedure down a great deal since he needed those fluids elsewhere.

Eventually we finished it up, and I released a sigh of relief. Which was promptly changed to one of my growls as I rushed him and bit into his granite flesh. Peter and Mama wouldn't be the only ones giving him scars today. I repeatedly released the spot only to sink my teeth into him again, digging deeper until it nearly popped off; this made for a thick scar once I completed my handiwork.

Once I was done with him, I stalked over towards Rosalie, who was backing away, her hands held up in defeat. She wouldn't be escaping me. No. This was my family. Mine! Had I not gotten so worried and went after them, I would have lost them. Did they not understand? They were mine! My mother. My father. All mine!

"Bella, baby, be reasonable. You gave me one a few days ago. I don't need another." I growled at her and shoved mass amounts of obedience at her that she tried to push away. Typically, I wouldn't use my gifts against them unless we were training, but they had to see, to understand. "Don't bite, no."

I lunged, trapping her down in my physical shield until I got a good enough hold on her to keep her still. "Mine," I snarled at her before doing the same biting technique on her that I did to Daddy. Where Emmett was mostly silent through the ordeal, she whimpered and whined; she did every time I marked her as my mother.

Why couldn't they understand? They're mine. My family. My parents. Without them, I would have nothing, be nothing. They were all I had, aside from Nahuel and Huilen, but they didn't count. They weren't mine. These two people were mine.

I had a constant stream of information flowing into one of my many trails of thought. Vampires could have anywhere up to thirty or forty trails of conscious thought. Subconsciously, they had even more. In this, they could think of multiple subjects and never received a headache. Thankfully, this was a trait I inherited, sans the headache-less-ness. I still got those sometimes. With these added on gifts, they took up some of my mental head space. Three of these were the visions; they never stopped. Some of this was the different instances that might happen within my family, some was what was happening to Aunt Huilen and Nahuel, others was the speedy shifting in the stock market, or what was going on in Jasper's coven, or even within the Cullens. Another trail of thought was Peter's gift. Everything that flowed in, information that related to me and information that didn't. It was all sorted through and memorized just like those visions.

Then we had the empathy. Everything everyone was feeling within my mental radar of about six or seven miles, the possible reasons behind it, and how it could be changed. Also, when anything living came under my mental radar, those minds were categorized as who was who, if I knew them and their personalities. It was difficult. Plus, since I was now a seer, it was also working to better my gifts. How to expand the distance I could 'throw' out my mental radar, how to follow the change in emotions much more easily, how to do anything at all. With some of these things, I wouldn't even have to practice them to have them memorized how to do them perfectly. With others, like the expansion of my radar, I would have to work it, like a muscle. Most of these, like the seer gift and clairvoyance, I'd let them be. There wasn't any changing that. Those gifts would never develop over time.

Finally, we had the subjects all normal vampires could do. Perfect recall. There were a few trails of thought that were consumed with going over all the things I've read, seen, and heard to see how any of it might relate to what's going on in my life now. All in all, my mind was cluttered but it a capability of so much more. Even still, Peter's clairvoyance was annoying.

_'Jasper's yours too.'_ It strangely sounded much like my own voice, but raspier, like I was a chain smoker and drank a lot of whiskey. _'If you left now, you'd find him alone, hunting.'_ Perhaps I didn't want Jasper. After all, didn't Maria want him? _'He's yours, not hers! Yours!'_ Didn't make a difference to me.

_ 'He's your mate.'_ I froze before tugging harshly on the mouthful of my mother's flesh. That was impossible. My kind didn't have mates. _'Major Jasper Whitlock is the mate of Isabella Marie McCarty.'_

No. That couldn't be true. It wouldn't be true. I'd change it. I didn't need a mate. I have my mother and father; it's all I'd ever need. I wouldn't let that happen.

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On my profile, there is a link to the _'General Affection'_ blog. It has pictures and links to stuff. Check the 'Extras' tab and the side-bar.

_Review! Please? _


	11. 10 Garrett

**Disclaimer: **The _Twilight Saga_ is owned by Stephanie Meyer. I don't happen to be her; therefore, I cannot possibly own it.

**Rating: **Rated 'T' for 'Teen'. May change later.

**Genre:** Action/Adventure, Angst, Family, Fluff, Friendship, First Time, General, High School, Horror, Humor, Hurt/Comfort, Romance, Supernatural, Vampires

**Warnings:** Adult Content, Blood, Discriminatory Language, Violence

**Pairings: **Jasper/Bella, Emmett/Rosalie, Carlisle/Esme, Peter/Charlotte

**Summary:** Your typical story. Boy meets girl. They fall in love. A baby is quickly made. What happens when the boy's a vampire? What happens when said vampire is killed before the baby's born? Renée doesn't know what's going to happen to her baby, but Nahuel promises to keep it safe from his father. Jasper/ Bella

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**Author's Notes:** Give you two guesses as to who makes an appearance in this chapter.

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**10. Garrett**

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**Narrator's P. O. V. **

She didn't inform them of the pixie's, Alice's, ability to see the future; she didn't tell them about Peter's gift for knowing random bits of information either. Even by vampire standards, hearing voices in your head was a little bit strange. Surely there had to be an asylum for that kind of thing. Since they already knew The God of War was an empath, she couldn't keep that a secret from them. Every day, she kept at expanding her talents, and it was exhausting.

They knew from Nahuel and Huilen that hybrids were only supposed to sleep two to three hours every other day, and that was if they were knock-out drag-out tired. Bella was sleeping four to six hours every day. Plus her emotions were all over the place. She'd lose her temper over the smallest details gone wrong, become depressed over the strangest of things. At least, her parents thought so. Bella would be in the middle of eating dinner, meals that were quadruple in size of what they used to be because of her heightened metabolism since the McCarty mates met the Whitlocks, and would lash out. One of her arms would swipe off everything on the table before flipping said furniture. Within an hour the emotion would change dramatically to suicidal. She would beg and plead with Emmett to end her existence, that it was all too much, and would have to be put to bed while she was still in that emotive state. And the biting, it was getting worse. Her possessiveness took a dramatic turn in a negative direction. Every few days she felt the urge to enforce her supremacy over them, remind them that they were hers. This was her coven, her family, and she would ensure that they knew it. She was hyper aware of everything around her, everything anyone did.

No one knew what to do. Since college life was finally over, Emmett thought a change in scenery would do his daughter good. Place after place was suggested. Even as Rosalie's ideas were shot down time after time, she never gave up hope.

Texas? Bella threw a fit and part of the kitchen was destroyed; Maria was there, gathering soldiers to be loyal to her, more-so than her precious major was, so that they could lead her new army. If they went there, the future was bleak; eventually Rosalie and Emmett would be captured, her mother used as a sexual toy for the newborns while her father trained what he could to send off to the hands of the Mexican Goddess. Her parents would be used as bait for Bella to join in Maria's territory wars.

France? A screaming match was held between the two women over that location. There would be a fire-haired woman named Victoria and her disturbing blonde mate named James. Icky-Vicky had a gift for evasion, derived from having to evade her sister's pimp unless she desired to be beaten and raped, and it informed her of all possible ways to escape, the best routes to take. While it protected her, it told her nothing of her mate, and James would die. Quickly, she'd desire retribution and go to the Volturi, providing information about a mated coven housing a human who walked around freely in the public. Bella knew they'd cross paths eventually, but not until she knew how to take Victoria out first. James wasn't nearly as dangerous and not nearly as intelligent.

Spain? Ireland? England? Russia? All were a giant big fat no. Mississippi? Bella could see it, living in the marshland. They'd have a house with a swamp in the back yard. Before the month of their moving there was out, she'd find her favorite food was fried alligator tail.

So, it had been decided to leave for the muddy bayou in June. This time around there was no college. They were simply trying to get Bella back to a relative normal. After all, how average could a half-vampire/half-human who feels emotions get? She was a carnie among the circus goers.

Emmett had been right; the different area was beneficial for his little baby. Even before Christmas arrived, she was making leaps and bounds in settling down her moods. She was also becoming more and more authoritative, refusing to take orders and being down right nasty if either of her parents went against her rule. Bella was, without a doubt, the coven leader. Unfortunately for the family, she was just starting to adjust to the sensation of that power pulsing through her veins with the same electric intensity that her physical shield constantly had wrapped around her body. It was exhilarating and terrifying. There were times, over the simplest of things, that she would use that power over them when it was unnecessary, while there were other times that she hadn't when it might have been needed to avoid some particularly difficult circumstances.

She struggled greatly. Between trying to enlarge her mental radar and physical barrier to cover more than a handful of measly miles, seeing drastically changing futures that many of which she hadn't desired to see whatsoever, manipulating emotions that had a high chance of lashing back at her or causing her to feel mentally ill, the fight for dominance with Emmett over her two parental figures, and succeeding in these goals only to know how much more she could do and have to deplete her energy supplies in striving towards those goals just to repeat the process all over again, she was growing weary.

The cherry on top was being able to see Jasper. Soon after the McCarty Coven had left New York, that following January to be precise, the Cullen Family arrived in New Jersey for Carlisle to begin another career in medicine, but once they knew that there had been a coven of human drinkers residing in the area a full twelve months before their arrival, they decided to move so that they could come back in a few years. Edward had frantically urged his coven mates to abandon the Whitlocks where they found the quartet, but Esme was always game to "adopt more children," and Carlisle reveled in the knowledge that there were more animal drinkers to support his plight in getting others to transition to his vegetarian way of feeding. So, they took the Southern Soldiers and Alice to Denali, Alaska to help Jasper in adjusting by having him in a human-free environment.

When the two covens officially met for the first time, the good doctor happily introduced his venom offspring as his mate and 'son'. However Alice took the reigns in the Whitlock Coven, feigning as coven leader, and only announced her name while calling the other three her "recently made friends". It had been obvious no more identification would be given from the four, but that didn't mean Esme didn't pry as best she could or that Edward didn't try to obtain every ounce of information he could through his telepathy. Quickly, he realized who they were, and their identities were one of the main reasons he tried to persuade his sire to leave them alone; the other had been because he knew he would never be able to manipulate the two men as he did Carlisle. Jasper was an empath and would feel the deception while Peter was skeptical by nature and only trusted those his gift informed him that he could believe at face value.

Even though he had been so against the four joining them, Edward desperately tried to seduce Alice. With a seer as his companion, he would be the most informed immortal known, making him the greatest asset. Unfortunately for him, the pixie was a lesbian; in fact, the idea of her having any form of sexual relations with a man brought her physical pain. The moment Tanya laid her eyes on the seer she was spellbound. Alice had been seeing visions of the strawberry blonde since her awakening and was already in love, and Tanya had been so desperate for affection that she had been seeking Edward's when he was around, no matter how nasty her opinion of him was. So, for her to find her mate in an energetic, affectionate person was a blessing for her; little details like her being a female was overlooked since she believed the girl was as wonderful as she was beautiful.

After a few weeks passed, Peter and Charlotte left. Jasper was fine where he was; he enjoyed the solitude of the forest surrounding the Denali home. About a month afterwards, the other two Cullens found out just who was being housed. The God of War. The Denali Coven still welcomed him with open arms, although Tanya, the coven leader, was a bit more suspicious of him. Esme was a different story. She couldn't overlook his past and was terrified of him; the woman already had been, having seen his neck, hands, and wrists were all covered in the scars of vampire bites or the repairs of limbs that had been removed. Carlisle had been thrilled even more than he already had been and tried to take him under his wing, tried to show him the joys of being a service to the human public. Very quickly, he found out it wasn't that Jasper cared for sparing human life, but that he couldn't deal with the mass amounts of negative emotions from the newborns on the vampire camps. So, the Cullens left before six months hit.

Within a year of moving to Mississippi, Bella succumbed to the knowledge that they were mates, but it didn't mean she wanted to be. She didn't want to be mated, period; it had nothing to do with fate's decision of who was her equal. Regrettably, since she already knew him to be her mate and saw him through her visions continuously, the mating bond was already forged on her half of their 'relationship'. In fact, it was so strong on her part that she was in a hefty amount of physical distress from being apart from him. It also meant she had to see the intercourse he frequently participated in with the two available succubae; every time he did so, she was filled with such intense nausea that she dry heaved throughout the ordeal, and if she had been asleep when it began, she'd wake up choking on her own venom that had pooled in her mouth before she go to doing the same as she did when she was awake. Then, when a vampire named Garrett passed through the area in 1966, hunting down some child rapists that just so happened to be British, his favorite nationality in snack, Bella received an extraordinary amount of pain when she thought of meeting and seducing the fellow.

Her parents, of course, met him head on, trying to dissuade him from continuing towards their territory, stating that their coven leader was very territorial, with Bella in the distance to remove any suspicion he might've had and to give him generous amounts of trust in their words. Thankfully, before they came into contact of one another, she informed them that it would be best if they persuaded the American Revolutionary War Man into paying the Denalis a visit after he finished his meals.

A month later, their phone rang for hours, day after day. The person on the other end wouldn't give up. After snarling at Emmett and Rosalie, Bella answered, "Hello."

_"I need to speak with Rosalie, is she there?"_ His voice was lively, almost cheery.

"She's unavailable at the moment, might I take a message?"

_"Is Emmett there?"_ Even with this delay, he was still happier than could be.

"They're both unavailable. Would you like me to pass along a message?"

There were a few minutes of silence as the requested vampires sat worriedly on the couch, watching their daughter. _"Do you know who the friend of theirs was that told them I should head to the Denali Coven?"_

"That was me."

_"I truly can't thank you enough for what you've done for me."_

"I'm sure you'll think up a way to pay me back, but by the time you think you've found the appropriate gift, we'll have moved on. Now, tell me, just who was it that gave you our number because we haven't had any contact with the Cullens since fifty-nine and we haven't associated with anyone else." It was something they were sure the 'family' was upset over, but neither Rosalie or Emmett were bothered with this fact.

_"I was asked not to say. "_

"We don't like visitors and we don't like for people to know where we are. You're why we're leaving, soon. We haven't given it to anyone and nothing about our home has anything to do with anything that might've been associated with anything related to something the Cullens or Denalis would have thought to search. I'd like you to tell me who you got our number from."

There was a growl of frustration crackling through the phone line._ "My coven leader's mate."_

"The black haired elfish seer. My coven mates met her and her Whitlock friends a little over half a decade ago." Both of Bella's parents' eyes widened at this knowledge; she could already see the visions of their questions. "We're moving soon enough, so this number won't be active for long. I'd appreciate it if you didn't inform the mind reader when he visits next week of where it was you met us. Actually, in a few days, why don't you take your mate and go to Ireland for a few weeks. She'll be enthralled with Maggie and she'll be tickled pink not to have to deal with the Cullen Boy's arrogance. When you return, Edward will be gone and Jasper will be leaving. Tell him to stay the hell out of the south. If he goes anywhere near Texas or Mexico, Maria will know and she will send entire fleets of soldiers out to get him. They will get him Garrett, in pieces. He's been making wish-washy plans that Alice can't see, trying to cover it up with how much sex he had been having with Kate until your arrival and his sudden 'increased interest' in Irena, but I can see more than she and I know more than Peter.

"I already knew it was her that gave you our number. I know your last human meal was four days ago, and he was a used car sales man who used sawdust instead of fixing up broken down cars. I know you stole a blue car; it's a piece of junk and you know absolutely nothing about vehicles. You can't drive either. Well, neither can Kate. Tanya can, but she'll be too busy with Alice in the next couple of decades to teach you. Ask Eleazar; he has the most patience. There should be a green tarp in the garage; make sure you take out the oil because you don't want thick sludge coming out when someone works on it.

"I also know the last time Jasper and Kate had any form of sexual relations was an hour before you arrived and it had been her giving him particularly mind-blowing oral sex. She'll perform a lesser version on you tomorrow; she figures she has to keep some secrets or you might expect 'extra-special' every single time. I know and see it all, Garrett. Alice is not fool-proof, neither am I, but I am more reliable that 'decisions'. There are many ways to get around her visions, but there isn't one to get around mine. Even if I can't stand The Major, and he is someone I do not wish good will to, I'd rather he not die. That's bad etiquette. I expect you to do some favors for me in my place when I ask them. Shouldn't be too difficult. It's one of those 'Be Good to the Seer, And She'll Be Good Enough to You That She Might Warn You f Someone's Trying to Destroy Your Coven' kind of relationship we have." She listened to him stutter through a few confusing words that no one was sure even belonged within the English language and then didn't even bid him any form of a goodbye before she hung up.

Immediately, she was hounded by her parental figures, people she looked up to so that she might keep her sanity, but she still advised them more than she asked them for advice. She answered a few of their questions, no matter how irritating they were. Yes, she had known of the gift ever since they ran into the Whitlocks. No, she never planned on telling them. Yes, she knew Kate was Garrett's mate and that's why she had them tell him to go there.

And they really needed to leave Mississippi.

The following week, Thanksgiving, they moved to Illinois, two hours away from Chicago. During their stay here, Bella began telling them about every aspect of what she could do, what she knew she'd be able to do after so much time and effort. Very quickly, they understood the reason for her breakdown after their unexpected visit with the Whitlocks and before their move to Mississippi. Those three months had been trying on everyone's parts, but especially hard for Bella.

Emmett and Rosalie were, once again, willing guinea pigs to everything Bella wanted to try, even if it meant pain for them. Thankfully, towards the beginning of their stay, Bella had finally gotten a grasp on understanding how to use the pulsing power of being a coven leader. Everything was looking up. While time seemed to pass quickly for most vampires, more-so for aged ones like the Succubae Sisters, it crawled by in the near isolation they spent on an abandoned farm they bought in the middle of no where.

When Bella told them they were moving again, this time overseas, the couple was thrilled. Paris, France. The city of love. Rosalie had been especially overjoyed; she wouldn't stop talking about the fashions and the romance for the two months proceeding their move. Even as much as Alice loved the catwalk, she wouldn't leave Alaska without Tanya, and Tanya simple wanted to stay hom and further lodge their bond into their vampire psyches.

They arrived in the summer of 1975 and Bella enrolled herself in as many different 'educational encounters' as she could find time for. Her weekday began with three or four hours spend at the library reading everything she could get her hands on, then she went to her daily cooking classes which took around two hours. This was followed up by three consecutive dance classes, the first always being Ballet, but the other two depended on which day it was. Sometimes it was classical, such as the waltz, and other times it was Latin and she was learning now to Rumba. Finally, she would spend the rest of her day strolling around the city, buying whatever she pleased and eating local cuisine. Numerous times, she tried getting her mother into sharing these experiences with her, but her offers were declined for clothes shopping and spending alone time with her husband.

On Saturdays, she would spend her time playing the stock market with an investor; of course, if she ever saw any drastic change that needed her to remedy her funds quickly, she would see to it instead of letting her family take huge declines in their finances. Sometimes she would have to let it happen, just to keep away suspicion, which was why she only went to the broker once a week unless it was massively important. Quickly, she made the family millionaires many times over and started putting the 'Cullen Money' they had been relying on into a different account that would gain interest since it was no longer being touched.

Most of the time, they put the stock market earnings into the McCarty-Hale Corporation Rosalie established years ago; this was mostly due to 'inheriting' money was a huge ordeal filled with multiple tax forms that were tiresome and seeing as taxes equal credit, vampires tend to avoid credit wherever possible, this was bad. So, all of their major purchases were put into the business so that they could become co-owners of said company and everything it owned every time they moved. No one in the McCarty coven understood why the Cullens didn't do this as well, but they weren't their problem. The rest of the time they either kept it in cash to be stashed in the house in safes that were virtually indestructible or in multiple safety deposit boxes in banks. Those banks can't do anything to what's inside of the safety deposit boxes since they don't have the key to it and as long as it was being paid to be used, it was safe from thieving hands.

Sundays, days most people used to rest, was used bonding with the family she typically only saw at night when she was getting ready for bed. Emmett had Bella from lunch until bedtime; which he spent playing games, gambling with 'buddies' the man made in bars, or simply horsing around the house. Rosalie used her mornings to work on restoring different vehicles, mostly Bella's, that would be found as complete dumps, learning a new language and practicing how to say these words or the accent used as well, or reading a new book together while cuddled up on the couch.

Of these cars, there was a silver-ish 1954 Jaguar XK 120 SE that had one foot in the scrap yard due to a car crash, a red 1929 Rolls Royce. the police had been selling off since it was found in cocaine raid, a scratched up white 1954 Jaguar XK120 Fixed Head Coupe that had been abandoned in a building, an grey 1958 BMW 507 Roadster Series II Rosalie found published in the paper, a black 1965 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray Which Emmett saved from being torn apart, a yellow 1969 Ferrari Dino 246GT she heard about from one of her dance class friends, a red 1969 Jaguar XKE Roadster Rosalie saw for sale on the side of the road, a white 1955 Austin Healey 005 Bella found advertised in a restaurant, an aqua 1962 Amphicar hat belonged to an older woman whose daughter passed away a few years ago, a white and striped 1965 Shelby GT 350 Emmett gambled off of one of poker buddies, and a red 1968 Ford Mustang Shelby GT500 Convertible Bella purchased from her cooking instructor.

They had been living a great life, but eventually all good things had to come to an end. Since it was a large city, not many people really noticed how often they saw a particular person if it wasn't frequent and the visits were far apart. However, as they were pushing eleven years in one location, it was time to move on. And the next one was a long time coming.

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**Ending Author's Notes:** A lot of time passed in this chapter and the next chapter picks up where we leave Paris and head to the McCarty's next location. Any guesses as to where they're going?

Also, I don't have internet, I get on a friend's computer. I'll update when I can, and it should be multiple chapters at a time when I do. Sorry for delays in getting them to you, but that's how my life is at the moment.

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On my profile, there is a link to the _'General Affection'_ blog. It has pictures and links to stuff. Check the 'Extras' tab and the side-bar.

_Review! Please? _


	12. 11 Rules

**Disclaimer: **The _Twilight Saga_ is owned by Stephanie Meyer.

**Rating: **Rated 'T' for 'Teen'. May change later.

**Genre:** Action/Adventure, Angst, Family, Fluff, Friendship, First Time, General, High School, Horror, Humor, Hurt/Comfort, Romance, Supernatural, Vampires

**Warnings:** Adult Content, Blood, Discriminatory Language, Violence

**Pairings: **Jasper/Bella, Emmett/Rosalie, Carlisle/Esme, Peter/Charlotte

**Summary:** Your typical story. Boy meets girl. They fall in love. A baby is quickly made. What happens when the boy's a vampire? What happens when said vampire is killed before the baby's born? Renée doesn't know what's going to happen to her baby, but Nahuel promises to keep it safe from his father. Jasper/ Bella

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**11. Rules**

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**February 1986**

**Bella's P. O. V. **

After thirty-one years, we would finally be visiting a man I looked to as a brother. I saw him everyday in my visions, but he had not heard from me since he and Aunt Huilen left Canada. Hopefully they would not be too difficult to find, but we had been probing our way through the dry woods surrounding the South-Easternmost Brazilian portion of the Amazon Rainforest for a little over a week with no sign of our coven mates, and I hadn't felt a single ding on my mental radar from someone I knew or vampires in general. I could see where it was they were, but I didn't know this area, even with the visions coming in from them at a constant rate. In addition, all of this looked the same except for the occasional fallen and decaying tree.

However, this land was so lovely; I did not mind the searching. Maybe we could come across a section that we could transition into a home for us. Like fancy tree houses.

_'Head a tad West.'_ Sure thing. I took a slight right, which had Mama and Daddy skidding across the swampland to keep up with my change in direction, and leapt to the branches. This way would be much quicker for me, and seeing as how I was half as fast as an actual vampire, this was a good thing. Just outside of three hours of running, I felt a familiar ping on my radar. Immediately, I perked up and motioned for my parents to travel closer to me; Mother took my left flank while Father took my right.

Just before I knew I would be nearing hearing distance of the person I was searching for, I slowed down to less than a human's walk. Quickly, I crouched down, creeping around the area as I snuck around their territory. My visions went through different scenarios, none of which were too awful; some were downright humorous. Then, I could see my victim, perched in the tree that ran straight through the middle of a half-finished version of those fancy tree houses I had been thinking about building deep within this rainforest where no one would dare to search.

As soon as I was in the proper positioning, I sprang. Free falling from the treetop, my parents still clinging to the tree trunk of the vegetation I had been in. I snarled wildly as my body collided with theirs, completely surprising my target. They went sliding back and into a free-fall; I followed after, grasping a flailing limb and tugging the body to my own. Just before we would have crashed into the ground, I expanded my physical shield to encompass my friend as well. A fall like this would cause any _harm _to either a vampire or a hybrid, but that did not mean it would not leave a half-breed a little sore from the impact if we were not cushioned.

The crash sounded with a dramatic boom; a couple of young trees were culled from the vibrations. Immediately, I released my capture from my arms, kicking the person away. Another ping sounded on my mental radar. The two of us growled as my parents and old coven mate tried to come within easy grappling distance of us.

Nahuel changed the direction of those growls to throw them at me, knowing this was more than a simple backyard tussle that we had been fond of when we lived together. He the coven leader of his two and I was the one for the McCarty Coven. I could feel the authority radiating from him, that power pulsing through his veins. When I was younger, I had felt it as well, but I had not understood it then. Now though, I would be taking it from him. He was family, like a brother to me, and he would know it. Like my parents, he and Huilen were mine.

With a snarl, he leapt for me. I twisted to the side, easily avoiding him. Nahuel was never one for a planned battle, a trait of his I would have to rectify while we were in the area with him. Gradually, I edged to the side, staying on the balls of my feet so that I could alter directions effortlessly. He feinted to his left and switched up to his right, which I went for before he could adjust directions. Grabbing his arm, I took a good hold of his shoulder and elbow, and slammed him into the ground just to pull him up and slam him down again on his other side. This was more aggravating for him than painful; even as strong as the desire for being his superior was, I would not be causing him any true damage. Other than the bite I would give him to assure my dominance.

After about twenty minutes of this, he was finally able to get away from me, loosening my hold on his body by prying my fingers off him with his other hand. This had been in mid slam, so he had been flung aside, where he toppled over yet another tree. This time it had not been so little. Snarling at me, he charged again. Honestly, this boy never thought. Again, I tossed him aside after roughing him up, and, again, he merely went head on into our battle instead of deciding the best course of action. He did not get anywhere close to me for me to require any use of my shield, and Alice's visions were not necessary to be able to see what he was doing.

Eventually, I grew tired of his games. I took him by the throat and slammed him into the forest floor to straddle his body. Before he could react, I shoved my venom-coated teeth into his shoulder.

Vampires had two types of venom. There was the one that was everyday use; it was constantly in their mouth, weak, and a great deal of it was necessary to turn a human. This was the type Nahuel had. There was the other type; he or she used it for special occasions such as marking one's mate with his or her scent or putting a Coven Bond on another vampire, and it was much easier to turn a human with this kind. This type burned a great deal more when a vampire was bitten since it was much more potent; another vampire could smell this in the flesh of someone that had been bitten with it. This was why vampires used it to 'Mark' their mates. The burning was why he or she used it in Coven Bonds; the one being possessed was to understand who their 'owner' was.

Coven leaders are the only ones that perform these 'Coven Bonds'. It forever marks the bitten as a member of their coven and is something that should never be undone. Removing the vampire from the coven would require the flesh to be permanently removed from the body and then for the hole for the missing section to be branded with hot iron to smooth over the flesh. The act of the bite itself was instinctual, usually caused by the coven leader finding the coven mate in some sort of danger. Typically, these bites were on the back of the neck, shoulders, wrists, ankles, inside of the elbows, or shoulder blades. The side of the neck or the crook connecting it to the shoulders was usually reserved for mates. This had been information I received from both Peter's gift and a phone call from the Denali Coven.

I had both of these types of venom. Moreover, the latter was what I used to push into Nahuel's bloodstream. The only other hybrid I personally knew began an ear-piercing scream that Huilen tried to attack me for causing. Thankfully, Mother and Father held her back while I continued my work. She would be next. Once I was satisfied with the first bite, I did it again to thicken it further. Repeatedly, I did this until it was obvious to human standards.

Whipping around, I lunged for my aunt and held her down with my physical shield. This was not like with Nahuel where we started out on equal footing, sans my powers; she was much stronger than I was. Quickly, I went for the kill and sunk my choppers into the back of her neck, pushing in the more heady venom. Like with her nephew, I did this multiple times. Once I was finished, I could feel more electricity pulsing through me, stronger than it was before due to having more people within my coven.

When the first left my mother, father, and me when we went to New York, I hadn't felt such a strong connection to these people. But, since Joham had visited, bringing along his demon spawn daughter, Serena, with him, my instincts with marking them upon sight ignited. They were my family, and they now knew it.

Nahuel was the first to move, still giving me the occasional hiss from the burning of the venom in his body. "I'd ask why you did this, but I am not sure I desire to know." Still rubbing at the mark, he sighed. "I have lead Huilen and I for a very long time, Bella. It isn't in me to be subservient."

Smiling at the man, I answered calmly, "I don't ask you to be. I don't ask it of my parents. My ways can be learnt with time. If you like, they can explain to you how it is my coven, my family, works." My brother in everything except blood wasn't too enthusiastic to learn early on about how I ran my ship, and scurried off. I had a feeling that he would be difficult about the change in power.

But Aunt Huilen wasn't. She knew how coven leaders reacted to defiance and didn't desire such a reaction from me; she was covered with enough bites as it was. "Does she have any rules?"

Daddy grinned at her. I knew he wanted to tell her false information, but with one look from me, that desire was crushed. "She's pretty lenient. Check in with her if you want to leave the area. Don't disobey orders. Don't go into her space. Don't challenge any other people head on, always bring it to her. If you have any problems, bring them up to her, she'll deal with it. don't ask her fifty times what the future of something you want to do might bring. Don-"

"Wait," she interrupted, "the future?"

This time, it was Mama. "We've got a lot to explain to the two of you."

Thankfully, Huilen was willing to wait until Nahuel came back from his tantrum to explain the goings on of what went down the past thirty-one years. Plenty of questions were asked, all sorts of information was given, and my patience had been tested. That was a trait that was necessary in any good coven leader: patience. Along with generosity and forgiveness. I was a pretty patient person, but I wasn't sure I had those other two traits. My parents said that I did, but they were my parents. They were biased.

"We think that's why she has this _need _to be a coven leader, to lead us. These gifts are too much for her and she needs a semblance of control. About twenty years ago, she said you futures were going haywire. And she still refers to Joham as 'The Bad Man'." I do wish Daddy would stop bringing that up.

Immediately, the two newest permanent members of my coven sprang up. "Joham's coming here? But he just visited ten years ago; he was so damn pissed that we didn't have you. He was hoping that you would hav"

"He was hoping that I would have gone into my first ovulation. I know. That won't be happening within the next fifteen years, at least." I sighed, scrubbing my hands over my face. "He isn't coming. He was trying to make another boy. One I might be interested in mating with. Jennifer was born instead. He's thinking about trying again, but he doesn't want Jennifer to think he doesn't want her."

Mama growled lowly in her throat. "No offense Nahuel, but your father's an asshole." We all laughed.

"None taken."

* * *

**July 1986**

I had been right. Nahuel wasn't going to just fall in line where my authority was concerned. Instead of being able to relax my mind, being able to take a mental vacation from the anxiety of living in a populous city, I had to stress over his challenges in leadership. Everything I did, he had a rebuttal. Any rule I had, he broke within reason. He wasn't so much of an idiot that he actively sought out other covens.

His latest offense was his snooping through my things. That was just rude. He took my vision journal! Even Father wasn't oblivious enough to take something that personal. He didn't steal from me period; Mama would've taken his hand for that. It didn't take me long to find his scent. Really, it was a wonder how these two hadn't been found yet, despite the fact that they lived in such a remote location in the rain forest. Nahuel sucked at fighting and hiding his trail. Wasn't he better than this the last time I saw him?

Apparently, he thought he was safe, because his mental ping was still in the same place. The tree in front of me, towards the top. I leapt from branch to branch of the trees surrounding it and landing gently on the balls of my feet. He knew I was here, but I didn't care. I wasn't going to put up with this anymore. I was getting tired of his ornery ways.

"Why haven't you told him?" I was confused. "If you know he's your mate, why haven't you gone after him?" He was actually reading it? I merely thought he was trying to rile me up.

Jerk.

Slowly, I sat next to him. This was a topic that had never been discussed in my family. For one, no one else knew I had a mate. "He's happy."

"But you are in pain being away from him. That must count for something."

"At first, it was because I was happy this way. I didn't want a mate. I wanted to be alone. I tried to search out futures and information on how to break the bond, but nothing worked. I was stuck like that, bonded to a man I didn't want or like. I began to hate him, just for existing. For being alive to have this retched thing tied to me. The more I saw of him, the less I liked. He slept with any woman willing to take him and it was disgusting. I couldn't stand the person I was seeing. And… he couldn't either.

"He's a tired man, Nan." I never did drop that stupid nickname, doubted I ever would. "He's existed through a lot. He's 'The God of War', and part of that frightens me. Not that he can destroy just about anything he comes across-I want a strong fighter-but the fact that he's so intense. I can't deal with his bull like he needs. I can barely keep a hold on myself. Half of the time I feel like I'm losing my mind. You don't understand what it's like, to see the things I see. To know what I know. It's difficult just to get out of bed in the morning. How am I going to take care of him if I can't even take care of myself? Mama has to remind me to eat in the morning because I can't remember to do it. Daddy has to catch most of my food for me because I'm too mentally exhausted to do it. Do you really think 'The God of War' is going to put up with that? No. He is not going to want me." I sighed, pulling my knees up to my chest and wrapping my arms around my legs tightly.

I felt his hand pat my back gently. Or, at least pat my shield. "I am sorry. I cannot make things better for you like you need. I had been hoping life got easier for you while we were away. Seems like it became a great deal worse."

"I'm tired. I'm tired of the visions. I'm tired of the knowing. I'm tired of the emotions. I'm tired of my shield, of my radar. I'm tired. I'm just _so dang tired_."

"Let us take care of you for right now."

"My parents are trying to talk Aunt Huilen into visiting Las Vegas this Christmas. I don't know how I'm going to refuse their request when they're so set on going. Maybe next year, but this year a couple of Volturi members will be there. It's just not a good idea."

"I'll tell them for you."

"I also need to warn Huilen. She needs to hunt tomorrow, not next week like she plans. The clouds will come out too soon for her to find a hiding place then."

"I'll let her know."

"I'm going to have to go to the city in a few weeks. Garrett needs to be warned about a visitor."

"I can do that too, but who's Garrett?"

I scoffed at him. "No, you can't Nahuel. I wish there was some way to show you, but there isn't and you can't. You can't do what I do. You can't ease this for me. I wanted to come here so that I could deal with the stress that living in the city caused me, but I can't. There's too much for me to dotoo much for me to know. You can't do what I do. I wish you could help, but you cant.

"The only way _you_ can make all of this easier is for you to stop testing my patience. After a long while, we'll be leaving you, and I'm going to have to trust you to see after Huilen, like you have all this time. Right now, I can't. I don't. I am this coven leader and you are part of my coven. I can't trust you Nan, and that hurts."

"Still, who's Garrett?" I laughed, having forgotten that we never told our extended family about the Mississippi Mishap.

* * *

**August **

It was time for one of my routine visits to a somewhat far away tourist trap city called Itaibuba. It was in Pará, Brazil. We were much closer to the river where Amazonas, Pará, and Mato Grosso connected. In fact, the meeting point of the river was about 120 miles east of the Trans-Amazonian Highway that passed right through Apuí, Amazonas, Brazil, and we were smack dab in the middle of that stretch of tree filled land. Well, if you were smack in the middle and went south-southeast about another seventy-five to a hundred miles. No one would travel that far in, they'd easily get lost and die. Nahuel and Huilen lived at the Eastern base of a large hill; a hill I liked to climb to the tops of the trees to watch the sunrise from.

As soon as we found Huilen and Nahuel, we bought a 'small' house that was mostly to be used to whenever we went to town. It was a six hour drive from Apuí, so it was plenty far from our home. So far, I was going once a week to deal with stock market issues and vision business. Normally, one of my four coven mates would tag along, but I all but snarled at each of the vampires when they tried to follow me. Nahuel had learned to leave me alone after our little talk. I wasn't ready to deal with him yet.

The boy next door to my house watched me pull into the drive way, ogling the yellow Dino I drove. Whenever I was living in the Amazon, I typically kept it towards the edge of the road about thirty minutes out of the very border of the town, hidden in the wilderness and covered by a tarp, when I was staying with the rest of the coven. Nothing was kept in this house that was too expensive or worth stealing while we were away. If you didn't count the clothes.

Immediately after I locked my car up, he started up on his fuss. The classic 'Hey Baby' mess I heard wherever I went; between Mama and Aunt Huilen, I seemed to know some fine-looking women. The only time I attended college, Daddy had gotten so upset by a few males hounding after my mother and I that he nearly got himself arrested. No one would touch his wife or his baby. Of course, I had been his 'twin sister' to the general public. I wasn't sure how people believed that; we looked a good four years apart. I ignored this guy, just like I ignored all those others, and slammed my house door closed with my hip, the bags of laundry tossed over my shoulder. I really didn't see what they saw in me. I'm just little ol' Bella.

It was while I was sorting through the bags of clothes that needed to be washed that I decided to make that phone call. I was pleased with modern day's invention of the cordless phone. Propping the device up on my shoulder and holding it in place with my cheek, I listened to it ring. We'd be having a huge bill at the end of the month for the long distance.

_"Denali residence. This is Kate. How may I help you?"_

"Hello, Kate, is Garrett there?"

There was a pause. _"Yes. May I know who's calling?"_ A polite one, she was. I knew Irena wouldn't have been so kind.

"McCarty."

_"I might not have spoken to her in a long time, but I know her voice when I hear it. And you-you are not Rosalie."_ Unfortunately, my empathic skills didn't work over the phone, but that didn't mean I didn't know the stereotypical sounds of a woman filled with jealous suspicion.

"You would be right. I'm not Rosalie. Still, I respect Garrett and your family, so I need to give him a word of warning."

Again, she paused. _"Very well. One moment."_

It took a good ten minutes, with the sounds of a heated argument in the background, before I was finally greeted by the American Revolutionary War Man. _"Hello, Garrett speaking."_

"Hello Garrett. You'll be the only one to listen to me when I warn you of your visitor in a few days. So, I suggest you listen and get them to heed my words." I was fairly sure he was nodding instead of answering me outright, but that didn't matter much to me. "The Volturi are coming for a visit. Aro hasn't decided who to send, but one of the Guard is coming to check up on Eleazar. He's leaning towards Demetri, his prized tracker. Alice needs to leave before this happens. If Aro hears word of there being a seer in the Denali Coven, he'll send in Chelsea. Believe me whoever gets sent there will recognize the signs of a seer. Don't let them know Tanya has a mate at all. Don't lie, but avoid the subject of Tanya's mating all together. But don't be fishy either."

_"Why are you helping us? Not that I'm against you warning us, but why would you do it?"_ That was a question I asked myself more often than not.

"You're a good person, as is your mate and her coven. Although, I don't particularly care for Irena. Besides, we've got a 'Be Good to the Seer, And She'll Be Good Enough to You That She Might Warn You if Someone's Trying to Destroy Your Coven' kind of relationship going on here. You haven't done anything for me as of yet, but the time will come."

_"Thank you."_

"Also, can you keep your coven mates from contacting us? We enjoy our privacy. Besides, you'll just be wandering around aimlessly for however long you spend searching for us. I'm a seer, I'll know when you get close. And, I'd rather not move again. We just settled down."

_"I'll try my best."_ Which meant he'd try to distract her with sex. Fantastic. Well, at least this phone number was registered for our house in Mississippi. _"Thank you again."_

"You're welcome, Garrett. Goodbye." And with that, I started up the washing machine.

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**Ending Author's Notes:** Hopefully it's up to what you're wanting after such a long wait.

* * *

On my profile, there is a link to the _'General Affection'_ blog. It has pictures and links to stuff. Check the 'Extras' tab and the side-bar.

_Review! Please? _


	13. 12 Illusionary

**Disclaimer: **The _Twilight Saga_ is owned by Stephanie Meyer. I don't happen to be her; therefore, I cannot possibly own it.

**Rating: **Rated 'T' for 'Teen'. May change later.

**Genre:** Action/Adventure, Angst, Family, Fluff, Friendship, First Time, General, High School, Horror, Humor, Hurt/Comfort, Romance, Supernatural, Vampires

**Warnings:** Adult Content, Blood, Discriminatory Language, Violence

**Pairings: **Jasper/Bella, Emmett/Rosalie, Carlisle/Esme, Peter/Charlotte

**Summary:** Your typical story. Boy meets girl. They fall in love. A baby is quickly made. What happens when the boy's a vampire? What happens when said vampire is killed before the baby's born? Renée doesn't know what's going to happen to her baby, but Nahuel promises to keep it safe from his father. Jasper/ Bella

**Author's Notes:** If you have read _Breaking Dawn _or seen _Breaking Dawn Part 2_, you know who is coming up in this chapter. In addition, the entire time I was watching the movie, I was pissed because Peter did not have lines. I mean, seriously, it's Peter!

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**12. Illusionary**

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**October 1988**

**Bella's P. O. V. **

Nahuel had finally succumbed to my superior placement in the coven. It had taken him some time to realize he was not above Emmett either. My father was my right hand in leading the McCarty Coven. We were not just an estranged selection of vampires and hybrids. We were a family; even those of us that were currently unhappy with their status.

My brother was only ahead of Huilen, and that was only because of how docile the woman was. If it weren't for the fact that Mama and Daddy are mates, he would be prior to her as well. Mates took the same status in a coven with the exception that one always was viewed as more important and held more authority than the other held by just a smidge.

My father was this one, much to Mama's displeasure. It was not that she desired to be sought out for advice or authority; she was vain and wanted a higher position in the family. Still, she was my mother and I loved her greatly.

Once Nahuel finally submitted to my leadership, my stress level took a huge nose-dive. Our immediate futures weren't so hectic and I no longer had to fight for dominance over him on a near daily basis.

It was while we were practicing moves from the martial arts books I bought prior to our move out here that I felt the chime on my radar of a strange vampire. Then another. And another. They were moving quickly. Immediately, I could see where they were, and it was near the fishpond that we enjoyed playing in after a hunt.

"Nan, to the tree house. Daddy, we have three vampires on the move. They are coming this way. Their minds don't feel vicious, but they are feral in a way, animal like and instinctual. Be careful. I've got ya'll protected." I followed him, standing at the edge of the patio in the shadows. Even by vampire eyesight, it would be difficult to see me at all. They would not be able to tell _what_ I was. The paleness would have them thinking I was a vampire; the heartbeat could belong to an animal.

I wanted to know why I seen their upcoming presence. _'They hadn't made the choice to visit. Typically, they hunt to the East; they switched their feeding grounds to keep the humans from becoming suspicious. They caught three other vampires' scent and became curious.' _Still did not explain why I had not been warned before hand about the coven in the area. We could have left. _'You needed to meet these people.'_ Really? That's the reason? I 'needed to meet these people'? What kind of reason was that? A stupid one.

Would I have to kill them? _'No.'_ At least my knowing gift was working somewhat. I just did not want this bull-honky happening again. I worried about my coven too much as it was; I did not need this on top of it all.

_'Everything will be fine.'_ Fantastic to know. 'Fine' was a terrific adjective concerning my family's welfare. It was the same dang word I used when I wanted to be left alone and_nothing_ was a-okay. _'So melodramatic.'_ I seriously needed to stop talking to my gifts. It could not be healthy.

Surrounding our home was trees with cleared out underbrush. This place, and the surrounding few miles, were much cleaner and grew much more healthily. Therefore, the moment they were near, we could see them easily; unfortunately, they could see my family as well. I could feel another tingling in me, something foreign. It had the same type of tingling that physical shield had, but a signature all on its own. One of these visitors had a gift. It wasn't a visible one like the Empathy or Aura Reading; it didn't affect my mind like Peter's Clairvoyance or the Seer abilities. So far, I did not like it. What was it? _'The middle height one, her name's Zafrina. She casts illusions. It is ineffective against you. Surround the family with your radar if you're so worried.'_ No, I did not like this at all.

Quickly, I expanded the elastic band around my mind to surround my parents, Aunt Huilen, and Nahuel as well. This was particularly difficult. It was much easier to use it like an alarm system instead of focusing on certain psyches. I rarely did this at all, so I could feel the sudden pulse of power that flowed through my mind to protect theirs.

The three of them were women, and they were beautiful. Even around these parts, they looked exotic. Their looks were so similarlong limbs and long features. They were human drinkers, but so was Huilen, so that little bit didn't matter much to us. Like my brother and aunt, they wore clothing made from animal hide and had long black hair pulled back in a braid. I had been right; they were feral. Well, maybe not quite such a harsh word as that. More along the lines of 'undomesticated'. This coven did not care about the state of their appearancea trait I knew my mother would vehemently protest against me picking upand most likely only associated with other beings when they went to feed.

_'They've met the Cullens. The Cullens have no intention to returning to this area anytime soon. Edward had been especially rude to Zafrina when she rejected his advances.' _How Tanya was willing to put up with his spoiled, bratty behavior in her pursuit of him, I wasn't sure. If the moment ever came where he tried to put the moves on me, I would smack him down. Probably tear him apart as well. I wouldn't burn him; Carlisle and Esme were too fond of the egomaniac and my parents were fond of their sire and his mate.

Their personality fabrics were lovely. There was a great deal of a medium, welcoming teal that expressed their open-mindedness. Perhaps they would be accepting of Nahuel's and my particular heritage, at least the fact that we were not vampires. I also enjoyed the two violets: the dark seductive silk for the supernatural and the bright and glowing silk representing wisdom. Then there was a brilliant aqua for kindness and sunny yellow for their friendliness. Nevertheless, my favorite had to be the light and pulsing orange that showed their courage. These were good people.

I shoved back my clairvoyant gift, not wanting to argue concerning who was right about it not having had warned me about their upcoming presence. It's not as if it would be mentioned to anyone; that kind of thing would be kept to me and me alone. Along with the burning of my vision journal. I knew keeping one of those had been a bad idea. _'But it got Nahuel to stop testing your authority.'_ I really hated Peter's Clairvoyance.

After ordering my brother to stay in the house, I swung myself over the porch's railing and dropped down in front of my family just as the trio came to a halt. I had a stare down, a lot less dramatic than the western movies tend to make it, with who I knew to be their coven leader. There were no tumbling weeds or crows cawing. All the emotional ties pointed towards her held love, obedience, and loyalty. The definite mark of a coven leader.

We both had patience; hers came from her old ageI assumed anywayswhile mine came from managing my father's immature ways and fighting the family males for dominance. Surprisingly, she withdrew first; was no one willing to give me a true fight?

"Hello," I could tell by the way she pronounced her words, English was not her native tongue and she hadn't been using it for long. "We are the Amazons. You have golden eyes; do you know the Cullens by any chance?"

_'Don't lie.'_ I wasn't going to.

"I know of them. Two of my coven mates have met them, but that was a long time ago." Any aggression she held quickly diminished knowing that she and her coven matesmostly Zafrinawouldn't have to deal with Edward's self-righteous attitude. "How is it that you know them? If you don't mind me asking, that is."

"They came into the area what would probably be twenty-five years prior to now." That was when we lived in Mississippi. Hadn't Huilen and Nahuel been here then? They needed to pick better places to live, scout the area before setting up camp. I had idiots in my family. "Might we know how it is your coven mates know them?"

"Carlisle sired these two in the 1930's. They left the Cullen Coven a decade later and haven't visited since. For the first few years, they spoke over the phone, but there hasn't been any exchange between that coven and mine in nearly thirty years."

A mischievous smile graced all three sets of lips. "You call them a coven. They call themselves a family."

"They are fools to believe such. They are no more a family than I am your maker." If they realized such, then they wouldn't have such problems with other covens. Or, if Esme wasn't so oblivious.

My parents and the three newcomers chuckled. "We are the Amazons. These are my sisters, Zafrina," she gestured to the woman who was just a tad over six feet, " and Senna," this woman was the shortest of the trio but was still incredibly tall at an inch shorter than two yards. "I am Kachiri," she was the tallest being five inches taller than the shortest of the group. Compared to them, I was a midget at a mere four feet and ten inches. Of course, my mother shared Senna's height, which made me look short anyhow.

"This is Emmett McCarty and his wife and mate, Rosalie McCarty. This is Huilen. Nahuel is inside the house." As I spoke each name, I gestured to each person in my brother's case, the tree house.

"We smelt a few new scents East of our homeland; we had not been in that area in nearly a century. We apologize for intruding on your territory. My sisters and I had been curious."

"It is no problem. I welcome you. Come by anytime."

Us two coven leaders stepped forwards, away from the rest of our coven, as a show of good faith in believing we wouldn't try to cause one another harm. Within a few seconds, Kachiri noticed my elevated heartbeat. I knew she had known I wasn't a vampire from my rosy cheeks and brown eyes, but the steady, quick thumps of my pulse threw her off.

"As you have noticed, I am not a vampire. I am not a human either. I am a hybrid, a half-breed vampire." I could sense my family's worry and fear, so I quickly replaced those fabrics with confidence and trust. "I was born of a human woman and a vampire father. She had been his mate and her pregnancy had not been intentional. He had been killed while trying to take care of her, and the vampire who killed him, stole her away. This man is Joham. He had been intending to use me as breeding property for his own hybrid child, Nahuel.

"Thankfully, Nahuel did not agree with what his father was doing and stole my mother from his sister, Serena. She is another one of Joham's hybrid children. While Nahuel had been running away with my mother, she gave birth to me. She died when the contractions began. Eventually, he decided to hide me while he threw his father and sister off of his trail. Emmett and Rosalie found me. They raised me as their own. I have been with them for the past forty-four years."

I sighed, knowing my tale sounded so far fetched. "I don't expect you to believe me, but I do ask that you not mention our coven and our status as hybrids."

Quickly, Kachiri returned to her sisters to quietly converse over what they heard from me. They didn't know that I could hear their words through my gifts, and it wouldn't be something I would inform them of anytime soon. If they chose to befriend our coven, I would explain to them my physical shield and radar, but that would be all. In time, I might trust them enough to explain my gift mimicking trait, if only to understand how Zafrina's power worked, but that wasn't now or anytime soon.

_'Trust them. They will be very beneficial. They will become family.'_ Oh yes, trust the magical talking voice in my head. It was too late for skepticism concerning the gift now, for I knew it never spoke lies and was never wrong. If it said they would be beneficial, then they would be so. Didn't know how, but they would.

_"Do you think they have deceived me sister? I could hear her heart. I could smell her venom."_ Exactly what I didn't want, a family argument. Great. The angrier they got at one another, the more likely that anger would be lashed out at us. I quickly went to work, subtly easing back that bubbling rage into moderate irritation; I also let a bit of understanding ease in as well. There was no suspicion, as I let these emotions flutter in their intensity as they would naturally. Mostly, they were still curious about us.

An hour passed before they came to an agreement. Kachiri stepped forward like before, this time her sisters accompanied her from a bit of a distance. That show of good faith was still there, but they were more wary this time around. "My sisters and I, we believe your words. We will not mention you to any creatures we meet." There was an almost audible sigh or relief from my parents; Huilen had more trust in my abilities than them, and she knew that if I thought these sisters were trouble for us, I would have killed them.

"My coven and I thank you."

"You call yourself a 'hybrid'. Might we learn more about this?"

I smiled at our visitors, giving a wave in the direction of the tree house. "Of course. Would you like to move this conversation indoors? Nahuel knows more about our species than I, and he is more comfortable talking about it than I as well."

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**Ending Author's Notes: **On my profile, there is a link to the _'General Affection'_ blog. It has pictures and links to stuff. Check the 'Extras' tab and the side-bar.

_Review! Please? _


	14. 13 Kitty

**Disclaimer: **The _Twilight Saga_ is owned by Stephanie Meyer. I don't happen to be her; therefore, I cannot possibly own it.

**Rating: **Rated 'T' for 'Teen'. May change later.

**Genre:** Action/Adventure, Angst, Family, Fluff, Friendship, First Time, General, High School, Horror, Humor, Hurt/Comfort, Romance, Supernatural, Vampires

**Warnings:** Adult Content, Blood, Discriminatory Language, Violence

**Pairings: **Jasper/Bella, Emmett/Rosalie, Carlisle/Esme, Peter/Charlotte

**Summary:** Your typical story. Boy meets girl. They fall in love. A baby is quickly made. What happens when the boy's a vampire? What happens when said vampire is killed before the baby's born? Renée doesn't know what's going to happen to her baby, but Nahuel promises to keep it safe from his father. Jasper/ Bella

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**13. Kitty**

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**1992 **

**Bella's P. O. V. **

Due to different vampires being in the area, I took to performing patrols, something I did weekly on our Mississippi and Chicago properties. It consisted of running around the border of my territoryreally it was Nahuel's and Huilen's territoryand marking the occasional tree with my venom. This consisted of using my nails to give the tree a sharp scratch like a set of claw marks to get past the bark, lathering my fingers in my venom until they were saturated and dripping with it, and swiping it into the newly revealed wood. The scentespecially if was the concentrated venom used for bond biteswould last for a great deal of time, and with enough applications, it would engrain into the wood itself for a partially permanent marker of claimed land. It was something that was usually done in the Southern Vampire Wars throughout the Northern portion of South America and Southeast portion of America.

It took barely two months for our family of five to become a family of eight. Thankfully, the Amazon Sisters weren't enthusiastic about pretending to be human by living in houses, so they stuck to swinging around in the wilderness and keeping their possessions in the tree house. I enjoyed Zafrina's company the most; she was much more carefree than Senna and Kachiri. She also enjoyed a battle more as well, so I had to split her available time with my father.

Always, I would ensure I surrounded everyone's minds by my radar when they were in the area. Seeing as they only left to feed, this was more often than not. As I did this, I became more comfortable with the action, and it became more natural. Eventually, it became second nature and I no longer had to think about it for it to happen. Even without Zafrina around, I was protecting their minds when I was awake and asleep.

The radar could also reach out further. Back in 1954, it could only stretch out six miles, similar to my physical shield. Now, those lengths were almost doubled. Most of the physical aspect had been done because of how much I worked with it off and on during the past forty-six years, but the mental aspect had been recent. Never had I needed to protect someone mentally, I only sought others out to know where people were.

My parents realized I couldn't stand to be around so many people, with everyone so close, my instincts to claim my territory skyrocketed. So, they built me my own fancy tree house about ten miles to the East of Huilen's and Nahuel's. These things had a special name, but every time my aunt and brother tried to tell me what they were called, I waved them away, enjoying being able to call them 'fancy tree houses'. I still performed my patrols, every year expanding my territory by a couple of miles, but I put an extra amount around the area I needed to sleep.

A conundrum that had been solved was the pain that came along with attacking my physical shield. Senna hadagainst all warnings we gavedecided to put herself against me, not believing that something that was physically half as strong and half as fast as a vampire could beat her illusionist sister. My family quickly found out that the reason Senna rarely fought was because she lost her temper within a few blows. Unfortunate for the Amazon warrior, her hostility was too much for me to remove from her psyche while I struck back and it lashed out instead. She dropped to her knees, convulsing in pain. Still, it was nothing compared to the last time Daddy tried to fight it. The pain accumulated with the time spent around the person, not because my shield was strengthening.

That was also the day we informed the trio everything about what my gifts could do, including the mimicry.

"You are all idiots," Zafrina had stated. "It is not a 'radar'. It is a mental shield. You have a rare talent, Little One."

So, the illusionist began teaching me the ways of her gift. It was difficult to do, more difficult than Jasper's empathy. His had been somewhat effortless since I already knew what most emotions looked like from Mama's aura reading talent. It was making the emotions remove themselves without causing my mind pain that had been problematic.

Zafrina had been patient in her lessons, giving me different pointers in how to allow people to see the illusions I wanted them to. Then, one day, it was obvious. It was my shield. Not only had I been protecting them from her gift, but mine as well. I had to relearn how to wrap their minds to leave me able to access them as well. Honestly, I figured it would take longer than wrapping them had become second nature, but it was easier than I thought it to be.

The first thing they asked to see? How my gift differed from my mother's. I showed them the fabrics, how they broke, how I could make more, how they tasted, how they felt. Which led us to know that Zafrina's talent and mine were different as well. Whereas she could only affect three sensessight, sound, and smellI could manipulate all five. They could taste the chocolate of romantic love; they could feel the silk of a supernatural creature. They could feel how when an emotion lashed back at me, it caused a scratchy pain. Of course, this wasn't a mental pain for them, but it was across their skin. Not nearly as painful.

As soon as I began performing illusions successfully, they began asking to see visions. If they decided to do this, what would happen? If they decided to do that, how would it affect their future? I had to sleep and eat more, because I was using up my resources with all the extra energy I had to use showing them their requests. And since nothing they asked to see was unreasonable, I showed them. Unfortunately, if anyone was within a six mile radius of me, I woke up from whatever sleep I managed to get because of my worry over what they wanted to see.

Never did I speak of how these things affected meI liked to keep my downfalls to myselfbut Kachiri noticed. She took to standing guard seven or eight miles away from my house to ward away anyone who came close when I needed to sleep. The woman had been a blessing to me, because before she had done that, I could feel myself growing short tempered with everyone I came across. Honestly, how no one picked up on it, I wasn't sure.

Sure, Daddy was a bit too laid back and never thought about anyone's actions and how they might relate to their emotions and their well being, but that didn't mean he was entirely oblivious! And Mama was entirely too self obsessed and rarely noticed anything outside of what had to do with her wants and needs, but she wasn't completely self-centered. Then, there's Nahuel, he might've realized that I was the better candidate where the family's safety and happiness was concerned and he was looking for a reason, any reason, so show the family that I wasn't as amazing as they thought me to be, but that didn't mean he was horrible enough to not ask if I was alright if he noticed that I wasn't at my best. Plus, Huilen was too submissive, she would rather me go to her and inform her to feed than tell me she needed to go and ask if there was anything that might cause her to delay her plans, but she wasn't so meek as to not inquire about my well being.

"You are stressed, Little One," I heard Zafrina say. "Do not give me attitude. I know you and I know how you are when you are stressed. You are stressed." This woman had easily become my best friend in our time spent with them. I'd miss her when we'd go to leave. At least cell phones were becoming popular; I could get her one of those before we moved on and we could still talk once in a while if she remembered to charge it.

I shrugged. "I'm fine."

Her throaty laughs sounded through the air. "You are not 'fine'. You are upset. What troubles you?" She sat beside me, her legs over the porch's edge like mine. Unlike her, I tended to swing them childishly. More than one pair of flip-flops had been lost that way.

"Why did no one but Kachiri notice when I wasn't getting any sleep?"

"My sisters and I recognize the signs of the illusions of someone who is merely beginning. My own had not been too good. Your family is not, and you are not particularly skilled at it quite yet. It takes time and effort to have them appear flawless. You had been manipulating their view of you to be happy and healthy."

As much sense as it made, it troubled me. "I've been casting an illusion over myself? I hadn't been trying to! Gosh, this is like my physical shield all over again." Why couldn't I just turn these things off?

"When I had been starting out on using my illusions, it worked by my desire for my sisters to see the daydreams I had. I had such an imagination, and they would see my imaginings. You desire for your coven to see you as happy and healthy, not sick and miserable, so they do not understand that you are suffering by your lack of eating and sleeping." She quickly glared at me. "I knew you were skimping on your feeding. You might not enjoy the hunt, but you have not been looking after yourself properly."

She was right, of course. Typically, my father would hunt down my meals for me. He enjoyed the extra food he had to catch for me to feed. While I was an omnivore, I usually stuck to meat. I could kill two birds with one stone in eating the bloody, raw meat from whatever animal he caught me. Predators were the best tasting; alligators being my favorite. However, since I was using more energy in the illusions, my one medium sized animal a day wasn't enough anymore. I had been hoping that my family would lose eventually interest in asking me to show them which decision would bring them the best outcome, but it didn't look like that would be anytime soon. So, I'd have to either tell Daddy to catch me another beastwhich wasn't happeningor I'd have to hunt myself. Seeing as alligators weren't populous in this area, and they were the only animal I enjoyed wrestling down for a meal, I'd have to find another solution.

I'd see if Kachiri wouldn't mind hunting me something down prior to my sleeping at night. Heck, she and her sisters were the epitome of a huntress; she'd most likely enjoy it. _'Hunt for yourself. Don't let anyone know.'_ Or I could do as Peter's gift advised and keep people out of this.

"Is it that you have not hunted yourself? Perhaps the body needs that, the feel of hunting down prey."

"I haven't hunted for quite some time, and I've gotten sick since coming here. You might be right. I'll go before I head for bed tonight." I bid her a farewell and watched her leave.

Since Daddy had already hunted for me this morninga herbivore per usual, we didn't want to use up all tasty foodI'd have to tell him before he set out tomorrow that he would no longer be necessary to catch my fare for me. Tonight though, I'd be doing something I hadn't done since Mississippi. I'd be hunting.

I watched her crawl through the forest, crouched down upon the sturdy tree branch. Oh, she was a lovely one, larger than most I'd eaten since living in the Amazon. Had my father been saving the good game for himself? Did he think I needed to eat so little? Just last week, he caught me numerous little rabbits instead of a big beast. He never had to skin those creatures, so he didn't know how aggravating it was to ensure that there wouldn't be any disgusting pelt going down my throat or stuck between my teeth. Besides, I enjoyed using their hide for clothing. A couple of years ago, the sisters began teaching me how to do this.

When we got back to America, my father was certain hunt me down a massive bear so that I could have a rug underneath my bed. I had been planning on making a cute purse with those rabbits, or at least fill the inside of a jacket with the soft bunny fur. If we vacationed in Africa next summer like we planned, I could have a crocodile wallet or crocodile boots! I already had a wonderful jaguar mini-skirt Jasper would love. And there I went thinking about that man again. Never could I truly shake him from my thoughts. But, that was the purpose of the mating bond.

Thankfully, before I set out to find my food, I had asked the clairvoyant knowing for the best place to find my meal and it directed me to the outskirts of a small village in the opposite direction of the city we drove to for any human things we needed to take care of. The moment I set my eyes on the panther, I knew she was mine. As of right now, she was trailing after two little kids that were playing far too close to the wilderness. Maybe she could scare them before I hauled her off; they needed to learn that the woods was a dangerous place. Hopefully they wouldn't get nicked; human blood smelt disgusting.

Just as I planned, she announced her attack, leaping to the children. Immediately, they dropped the wooden spears they were playing with as they screamed and ran for their parents for safety. I grabbed the creature by the tail, yanking to get her attention. She turned, wanting me as her meal instead. Well, sorry miss, but you're my food. I teased her into following me into the woods; she happily complied with my taunts.

"Here kitty, kitty, kitty…" She roared, upset. Honestly, it was like she could understand me. Perhaps it was the mocking tone of voice. Then, she sniffed the air and stiffened, hissing at me. She knew I was a bigger dog than her from the scent of my venom alone. "Come're kitty…" Dodging the swipe of her paw, I nearly lost my new shirt. Mama just bought this for me; imported fancy something or other from Italy. It was expensive… and hot. I hated it. At least it wasn't the nun-like fashion Daddy picked out for me; did he want me to have a heat stroke?

"Come on kitty. I don't bite while you're still alive." She charged and that was all I needed. Quickly, I snapped her neck and tossed her onto my shoulder. I'd run the forty-five minutes back home with her on my back, but that didn't matter much. It wasn't like she was heavy for little ol' me.

Perhaps I could get Kachiri to skin her for me while I took a shower. This thing was huge and she always did a better job than me with her millenniums of experience. My work was much better than any human fur I'd seen, but they were never as pretty as her quick, skilled strokes.

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**Ending Author's Notes:** No pet kitties here. Vampire venom is lethal to animals, so says Stephanie Meyer.

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On my profile, there is a link to the _'General Affection'_ blog. It has pictures and links to stuff. Check the 'Extras' tab and the side-bar.

_Review! Please? _


	15. 14 Misery

**General Affection**

**14. Misery**

**Disclaimer: **The _Twilight Saga_ is owned by Stephanie Meyer. I don't happen to be her; therefore, I cannot possibly own it.

**Rating: **Rated 'M' for 'Mature'. _Very vague _allusion of sex that relates to the story.

**Genre:** Action/Adventure, Angst, Family, Fluff, Friendship, First Time, General, High School, Horror, Humor, Hurt/Comfort, Romance, Supernatural, Vampires

**Warnings:** Adult Content, Blood, Discriminatory Language, Violence

**Pairings: **Jasper/Bella, Emmett/Rosalie, Carlisle/Esme, Peter/Charlotte

**Summary:** Your typical story. Boy meets girl. They fall in love. A baby is quickly made. What happens when the boy's a vampire? What happens when said vampire is killed before the baby's born? Renée doesn't know what's going to happen to her baby, but Nahuel promises to keep it safe from his father. Jasper/ Bella

**Author's Notes:**

**14. Misery**

Kachiri was waiting for me at my fancy tree house, most likely wondering where the heck I had been. I had always been at my home when she came to inform me that she was patrolling around my house to ward away my family during my sleeping hours. With a sigh, I dumped my kill on the landing.

"You hunted tonight, why? If you do not mind my asking." Such polite women.

I shrugged. "Zafrina seems to think my lack of hunting my own food is wearing down my body into sickness. It's likely that she's right."

"I see. That is quite a large panther. Hungry by any chance?"

Honestly, I felt like I was starving. "Somewhat. Do you mind skinning it for me? I was thinking about making her into a throw blanket. Or a pillow."

"Do you not care for pants? I believe that I have not seen you wear any since I have met you."

A giggle escaped me. "We explained to you about my heat. You can feel it now, radiating from me. With how the weather is here, it's too hot and humid for pants. When we move up North again, I'll most likely wear pants. For one, it'll look strange if I didn't. For two, the air will be cool enough for not to feel like I'm dying from a fever."

"Well, would you like me to make her into pants for then?"

Another feminine laugh. "Sure. Her fur is plenty silky. Whatever's left over, I can make into a wallet or purse. Unless you're wanting it for something, then you can have it."

"No, no. She will make a lovely pair of pants." She held up the creature, turning her this way and that to examine her. "Not a mark on her. How marvelous for a beast so large."

She went to work while I went to take a bath. I'd have to take another due to how sweaty I got at night. Of course, I typically took three or four a day because I got sweaty then too. Thankfully, my body was made to survive worse things than a heat stroke.

First, I washed my hair, which grew so quickly it was a menace. Nahuel's hair grew half the speed of a human's. From what he knew from Maysun, her hair grew at twice the speed of a human's while Serena's took on one fourth. Mine? Five or six times as fast as a human's. When I was going through my second year, it was even faster. That second year had been extremely painful for me.

Part of me wandered to think of Jasper while I moved on to scrubbing my body rigorously. I didn't have to wonder what he was doing; I could see it as easily as if I were there. He was seducing a human girl, newly turned twenty-one, into coming back to his hotel for the night. The woman was giggling, entranced by the strange man with golden eyes. Quickly, I tried to ignore what he was doing, but it was too late. It had been a bit over five years since he had any intercourse, and I knew it was coming soon, but I had hoped he would try celibacy a little while longer.

Suddenly, my point of view changed without my permission. They were leaving the bar, and I was no longer an awkward spectator; I was the girl, Claudia. She was tiny, a brunette, and overtly submissive. It would be a trait he wouldn't enjoy about her. Jasper loved a challenge, and this girl wasn't one whatsoever.

Desperately, I tried pulling away from seeing this, to concentrate on getting clean, but it proved to be somewhat effective. At least I wasn't solely focused on it anymore. I went back to scrubbing myself with a vengeance. Once there was obviously no dirt left on my body, I tried washing my hair again. Anything to avoid the sickness that was gathering in my stomach.

The moment he entered her, I couldn't fight it back any longer. Venom began rising, bubbling up in my throat. Even as it burned, like when self-loathing lashed back at me if I didn't break the tie to the individual correctly, I still tried to keep from screaming out in pain. Leaning over the edge of the tub, I began spewing mass amounts of the bonding venom.

I choked on it multiple times, breathing some of it back down. When Kachiri came back from dealing with the fur from the panther, she rushed into the bathroom to see what was the matter. Unfortunately, another wave of nausea struck me, and I threw up more venom all over her lap immediately after she crouched down in front of her. She viciously hissed at me and jumped back due to disgust, but the moment she looked down at me, naked and falling out of the shower to halfway drown in my venom, those emotions were gone to be replaced with extreme amounts of worry.

"I apologize," she stated sadly before fleeing from my house. I had a vision of her running to Zafrina and my father, who were sparring at the time, frantic and distraught as she explained what she saw. The three rushed to me; my father less worried than the sisters. He had been there through this a great many times. Most likely, he'd be pleased that I hadn't fed beforehand so there was no bloody, meaty mess that needed to be cleaned up. Just the venom that was currently torturing me.

Before they stormed inside, I tried to lean up, to at least get off of the slippery floor and maybe clean myself a little, but it was of no use. I would slip and land face first in my venom all over again. By the time they arrived, none of me was in the tub anymore and my hair was saturated in the vile acids that I had been gushing. I'd need another bath.

Zafrina was first, automatically scooping me up out of it and brushing my tangled mop of hair out of my eyesight. Melodiously, she whispered a sweet lullaby in her native tongue. It was more to calm herself from her raging turmoil of fear than soothe me of my burning pain.

Next was a tie between Kachiri and my father. He sighed, running his fingers through his recently cut hair. An unfortunate accident concerning him and my mother in a wild exploration of their sexual side in the trees resulted in us needing to shave off most of his hair to match the area that had been hacked off by an animal that hadn't enjoyed its home being demolished by their enthusiastic endeavors.

"Kachiri, please go get a bucket. One of the larger ones Bella keeps by the backdoor. Zafrina, try cleaning her up. I'm going to get some cleaning stuff to clean up all this venom. When she stops, she's going to need food."

They were disturbed by his nonchalance in my sickness; however, they still did as he ordered. Zafrina was gentle in her washing of me, acting as if I were a porcelain doll or sea glass. First, she would wet the rag in icy water, suds it up in my soap, gently wipe it over me, rinse out all of the venom, and repeat the process all over again. When her coven leader came back with what could be considered a wooden bathtub for a child, I leaned over the illusionist to surge more of my venom into it; at least I didn't miss. I shuddered as my body heat rose. The venom was like a coolant living inside of my body, and without it, my temperature began rising quickly. I was already surpassing my normal one hundred twenty degrees by a good eight or nine. When I was younger, my temperature had been a bit lower, but collecting gifts caused it to spike along with my metabolism. Even while I slept, it would increase even more. It I weren't a vampire, my brain most likely would've melted into goo by now.

"Kachiri, get another one and fill it with ice. Zafrina, when you're done cleaning her, draw her a cold bath. We'll fill it with the ice." Again, they did as commanded. My friends took care to point me to the bucket to puke into instead of all over myself or them.

Before Jasper's first orgasm even occurred, my body ran out of venom to vomit up so my dry heaves began. When his climax finally did occur, I was screaming out in pain. I was thankful that he pulled out before his seed spurted inside of her; he wasn't sure what it would do to a human woman, but he figured it couldn't be good. Any time he was with a female vampire, he would typically orgasm still inside of her. Those were the occasions that I would convulse from the agony of his encounters. I knew that, if either of my parents were to come across the Major while they knew _why_ I had these horrific bouts of sickness, they would rip his penis off and hide it where he would never find it. Possibly in Esme's sock drawer.

Zafrina got into the tub with me, still clothed in the little the Amazon Sisters wore, and the water over flowed. I was just glad that the bathroom dipped down so that it wouldn't flood out into the hallway. Gently, she rocked me while humming the cradlesongs of her childhood, trying to soothe away my pains. Both of the women sobbed next to me, and I could feel Senna and my mother approaching the house. The instant the last of the sisters came upon the sight we made, she rushed to me, frantically worrying and trying to appease my distress in any form she could think of.

On the other hand, Mama appeared exasperated. "I thought we had gotten through this… She hasn't done this in over ten years!"

"I know, but it's happening again, so we'll take care of it," my father stated calmly.

"I don't want t-"

"Don't wanna what Rosalie?" he asked angrily while stepping up into her face. "Don't wanna deal with your daughter?" She hurriedly tried to backtrack, but he wasn't having any of it. "Don't start your bullshit. You love Bella, I know that, but anytime she has a problem, you pushed it off on me. If there was ever anythin' 'wrong' with your 'perfect child', you didn't want to deal with it.

"Well, too fucking bad. Kids ain't perfect. You wanted to discipline all of the 'wrong' out of her, so that she could be perfect. You ain't gonna fucking beat my baby for being sick, Rosalie. You ain't gonna beat my baby at all. Now, either get off your fucking high horse and help clean up or go the fuck somewhere else because I don't wanna look at you if you're gonna abandon her like that."

Unfortunately for Daddy and her, she fled my house. The sisters watched her, hissing at her as she ran. I knew she'd come back within a week; however, the damage was already done. My father wouldn't be forgiving her anytime soon. This wasn't something he could overlook so easily like he did almost everything else.

"I'm so sorry baby. I didn't think she would be so heartless about this."

"It's okay Daddy." My voice was raw and raspy from how much abuse my throat had taken in the past half hour. At hearing this, the sisters went back to fretting over me. Draining the bathtub water when it was no longer icy cold, and putting in more while adding huge amounts of ice.

When Jasper finally finished with his sexual outing, hopefully the only one he'd be partaking in for a while, I was immensely relieved. There was no more mess to clean up, as Senna and my father took care of the flood of water Zafrina made nearly an hour ago and any other spill would be cleaned up as it happened. Slowly but surely, my temperature cooled to be lower than one hundred fifty; it took an additional near two hours, and the water had to be replaced numerous times. During this, we ran out of ice in both houses, so we they just kept the water running.

Thankfully, my father left the room as the sisters cleaned me an additional time, dried me off as gently as they possibly could, and dressed me in a limited amount of clothing. Shorts and a tank. The three of them fussed over me anxiously, distraught by my 'mysterious' illness. In a heated and whispered discussion that they deluded themselves into believing I couldn't hear, they discussed different reasons they thought I might be going through something like this.

When they got to arguing, my father popped in with, "Nahuel and I think it's because of the gifts she gains from new people. When we met the Whitlocks, they had three gifts. A few months later, she went through this many, _many_ times. She's met you, Zafrina, and she's doing it again. Hopefully it won't be as bad, seeing as it isn't a gift that _requires_ _constant_ use, and its only _one_ gift."

**Ending Author's Notes:**

There is a link to the blog for this story on my profile. It has pictures and links to stuff. Just look under the _'Extras' _tab.

_Review! Please? _


	16. 15 Out of Commission

**Disclaimer: **The _Twilight Saga_ is owned by Stephanie Meyer. I don't happen to be her; therefore, I cannot possibly own it.

**Rating: **Rated 'T' for 'Teen'. May change later.

**Genre:** Action/Adventure, Angst, Family, Fluff, Friendship, First Time, General, High School, Horror, Humor, Hurt/Comfort, Romance, Supernatural, Vampires

**Warnings:** Adult Content, Blood, Discriminatory Language, Violence

**Pairings: **Jasper/Bella, Emmett/Rosalie, Carlisle/Esme, Peter/Charlotte

**Summary:** Your typical story. Boy meets girl. They fall in love. A baby is quickly made. What happens when the boy's a vampire? What happens when said vampire is killed before the baby's born? Renée doesn't know what's going to happen to her baby, but Nahuel promises to keep it safe from his father. Jasper/ Bella

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**15. Out of Commission**

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**Emmett's P. O. V. **

At this, Senna lost her temper. "If you thought that _this_," she gestured to daughter's weak and convulsing body, "might be a result of her using my sister's gift so often, why would you ask her to use it as frequently as you do?"

I could tell Bella was trying to eliminate her anger, as she typically bit her lip when she was trying to concentrate, but it was ineffective. It would take her an entire week to fill her body back up with the venom she needed. Possibly longer. Until she was all better, she would be incredibly fragile to our vampire strength.

"I hadn't thought about that." Apparently, I hadn't thought about a lot. "If I had, I wouldn't have done it. None of us would." I couldn't speak for my wife though, seeing as she was so selfish as of late.

As Zafrina picked my little baby up, Bella began mumbling about different visions she saw, delirious in the feverish haze she would be in until at least three quarters of her bonding venom was replaced. Immediately, Senna's anger dissipated as she fretted over my daughter. In the beginning, I hadn't known what the words had been about; I had simply thought them to be nonsensical ramblings due to hallucinations while she was suffering from her condition. As far as this particular sickness session had gone, it wasn't all that bad. I'd hate to see these three mother hens if they had to deal with Bella throwing up for two and a half weeks straight. Rosalie had fled from the house to live in the woods during that time, leaving me to believing our daughter was dying. It had been the first time it had happened and I had been contemplating ending Bella's life as it happened due to the amount of pain she was in.

Hell, she had been begging for death as well. Even if Bella didn't have her shield, I wouldn't have been able to do it. She was my baby, and I couldn't lay a finger on her to hurt her. I definitely would have been able to beat her ass like Rosalie had ordered of me whenever she had gotten too fed up with a 'defect' in Bella. Sometimes I wondered if Rosalie knew Bella thought her mother could barely tolerate her 'strangeness'. Rosie loved our child, but she strove for perfection, and she didn't think Bella was perfect. Not by any means.

I celebrated Bella's _'peculiarities'_. So what if she was a little quirky; it was what made her unique… other than being a hybrid. In all honesty, I thought she was amazing.

"Garrett warn Eleazar… eat girl village. Alice no go London… plane crash. Edward die he go New York. Peter need find Jasper. He too alone. He too sad. No Jasper. He go Volturi… ask death. No. Have to save Jasper." God, she was really fixated on The God of War. "Must warn Peter. Must save Jasper. Have to save Jasper. Save Jasper." Alright, so I had some phone calls to make while she was out of commission.

The trio of mother hens put her to bed, one of them in the bed with her too help cool her down, while another tried to get her to eat a little something, and the last stood guard. Even as distant and cynical as Senna was, she treasured my child just as much as her sisters did. Honestly, I didn't know which one of them loved her more, and I definitely knew they adored her more than Nahuel and Huilen. Something I never thought would've been possible.

There were times I almost thought they loved her more than I did. If they were best for her, then I'd make sure little Bella stayed with them, even if it meant I had to leave. Thankfully, that didn't appear to be the case, so I'd get to stay with my little girl for a longer bit of time.

A whimper of pain left Bella and the mother hens went back to fretting over her sick form. At least they weren't arguing about the best way to take care of her. Later, when it wouldn't be a sore subject, I'll make a joke about their worrying. It would take a while, a vampire while, seeing as they were a handful of millenniums old. They prided themselves on their age; it was difficult to live past five hundred because of the territory wars that happened in Central America and the Dacian war that happened somewhere around a couple of thousand years ago against the Volturi.

Again, there were more of the seemingly ludicrous mumbles of her visions. "No, no… Joham and Serena… No. Maria! Army! _No_! She… Major. Want Major… Maria want Major…" Alright, so that wasn't so illogical like the last bunch had been. I mean, what was I supposed to do about Garrett warning Eleazar about eating a girl in a village. There were billions of those! And was he supposed to eat her or not eat her? That made no sense whatsoever.

"Maria think Alice Jasper mate. Must kill Maria." That wasn't happening without her at her full strength because she could easily be picked off like she is now. Her physical shield barely even responded to us; granted, that could be because it was so used to us around her. But still!

"Jane kill child." That probably happened on a daily basis. "Immortal Child Army." That… not so much. "Army come Alaska. Jane kill." Nothing to worry about there. Jane would kill them before they even reached the Denalis.

"Everyone dead." Could you elaborate a little? "Volturi Alice. Volturi Tanya.

"Kill Maria!" Was this Maria's army of Immortal Children? "Joham… no." Back to Nahuel's father.

"Daddy town. Daddy Garrett." She was already seeing the visions of me warning the Revolutionary War man. "Mama gone." And Rosalie ditching us. "Mama stay." And staying. With how my wife tended to be, the debate over whether or not she'd be remaining in the Amazon would be happening for quite some time. So, I left to warn the Denalis since Bella obviously couldn't. I didn't plan on staying for a lengthy period of time, just however long it took me to get Garrett to listen to reason.

I ran straight to the tourist trap city, thankful for the coverage of the night. It took a while, seeing as the Panamal Wetlands wasn't exactly one of the highways leading to Las Vegas.

Speaking of which, that was a place we seriously needed to visit, but every time we started making plans, Bella would continually nip them in the bud. How else were we going to test the theory of _'Drunk Human plus Vampire equals Drunk Vampire'_? If it was true, I'd have to get a grizzly to drink a bottle of whiskey. Or five. Or possibly some moonshine. That would probably be a lot more effective. Make sure it's the bear's only water source marinate meat in it for hours while scaring off all of the other possible food. It would be good and tipsy that way.

Or, I could always ask Garrett before I got to the serious subjects. Start with a little light hearted banter. _Good idea Emmett._ Yes, yes it was.

I really shouldn't talk to myself.

Sneaking into the house with a couple of bobby pins, I quickly disarmed the security system before locking the door back. It wouldn't keep out another one of my kind, but it would keep the human burglars out. Immediately, I located the phone and dialed up Kate's mate.

The voice was curt, short and to the point with a great deal of irritation. Who pissed her off? _"Denali residence, Tanya speaking." _Don't offer me any help, why don't you.

"Is that anyways to treat a friend, Tanya?"

Like I thought she would, she immediately changed her tone to one of welcoming and general happiness. _"Emmett! It's wonderful to hear from you, especially considering I hadn't heard anything from you in years! All anyone hears from concerning the McCartys is from a seer leader you have and it's only ever directed at Garrett." _

"Yes, her. Well, she thinks we should lie low since the Volturi's scouring different covens that are known for collecting different gifted vampires. Aro's desperately seeking out a seer. Thank you for not mentioning ours." I knew we could count on our Alaskan cousins.

She giggled. A long change from the gloomy coven leader I used to know. _"You must thank that girl for warning us. Alice left a few days earlier than suggested so that she might see the fashions in Europe. Oh, she was so happy. When Demetri left, I joined her. We've been trying to keep Edward from finding out about your seer's abilities, but mind reading is a difficult talent to block. Any time he questions Kate about anything, she screams at him in her head and shocks the living hell out of him. He's only visited once since Jasper originally left." _

Yes, the main reason behind my call. "Right now, my seer is… lost in her visions. She's unable to make any calls."

The strawberry blonde interrupted before I could further explain. _"Oh, oh no. What happened?" _

"That's not important right now. What is important is that I talk to Garrett."

_"Yes, of course. I'll go get him." _I could hear her set the phone down and call out for her newest coven member.

It took some time before he finally arrived, already sounding alert. _"Garrett here."_

"Do you have Peter's number?"

_ "Yeah, why?" _

"You're friends with Jasper right?"

_ "Yeah…" _

I ran my fingers through my short hair, missing my curly locks. "Jasper's going to go to the Volturi and ask for death. He's too depressed."

_"Fuck. He was just here a couple of months ago too. Last time, he was fucking everything. Kate before I got here; Irena up the walls. Now, it just seems like he doesn't give a fuck about a goddamn thing." _He groaned, most likely jerking on his beard. _"Look, can you call back in about ten minutes? I gotta call Pete." _

"No problem." I hung up, half-heartedly counting the passing seconds to the ten minute goal.

Somewhere past the three minute mark, the phone began ringing. "Hello?" Had Bella been expecting a call?

_"I'm sorry," _I heard my wife say. _"You're right. God, you're fucking right. I've never been there for her when she's hurting. I'm sorry." _I wouldn't even ask how she found out where I was.

Right away, I growled. "I'm not the one you should be apologizing to. You've always run away from your problems Rosalie. Everything except for Royce; you took care of that. Bella isn't a _problem_. She's a child and children have their complications. Either you help me take care of her right, or you get the fuck out of the way and strip the title 'mother' away too. You can't be a good mom like you think you are when you've never actually tried mothering her. She's hurtin' right now, and she's got three women who ain't even her mother or want to be her mother taking care of her. You haven't once taken care of her when she needed it. You ran away."

There was a sigh. _"I know. Fuck… It was just so much easier to let you deal with it instead of taking care of her myself." _

"It always will be. Running away from the difficult times will always be easier than dealing with them head on, but the reward is so much better if you stay." I wouldn't mention to her about Bella looking to Kachiri as more of a parental figure than her; it would be too low a blow.

_"I'm going to go. Get a head start on all of that 'dealing with it'." _She paused and I could almost see her twirling her hair in nervousness. _"What if I can't do it?" _

"It's going to take time, Rosie. I've had years of experience in dealing with this; you haven't. You've got to learn how to ease her worries, her stresses. It takes time and effort. I'll be there through it, helping you. But, right now, you've got a daughter to look after and love. She needs that more than anything else."

_"Okay… Alright, I'm going to try." _

"That's all she really wants, you honestly trying to be there for her. If you succeed, that's even better."

_"I love you, Emmett." _

"I love you too, Rosie," I said as I heard the phone click as she hung up. I still had another four minutes until I needed to call Garrett back.

I went back to counting the seconds to wait for my ten minutes of waiting to pass. The very moment it struck, I hit redial. _"Emmett?" _

"Yeah."

_"Peter thanks you, or well, thanks her. Thank you for letting us know. How hasn't Alice been seeing all of this?" _

At first, I shrugged, but quickly realized they couldn't see my actions like Bella could. "She sees decisions. Jasper hasn't been _deciding_ to become depressed. I don't think he's been making many decisions at all. Going to the Volturi wouldn't have been a decision if he was suicidal; it would've been a necessity. Alice would've seen it at the last minute when Aro decided his fate or how he was planning on asking for death. My seer sees differently than yours does.

"She sees what's going to happen, regardless of decisions. Also, from what I understand, there's a portion of her mind that's constantly seeing the lives of the vampires she's generally come across. She doesn't have to meet these people and spend a few hours around them to where she can see their future. She has to come across a six mile radius of them. Six miles Garrett."

I heard a low whistle crackle over the phone line. _"Fuck. I wouldn't want that gift. She sees my life, right? I'm mated to a succubus, so she's been seeing a shit load of sex. She's been seeing Jasper's too, so there's the initial fuck-ton of years of sex he had once he came here." _Knowing she had a constant stream of porn going on in her head wasn't a thought I wanted.

"Well, Jasper wasn't the only reason I called." This, this wouldn't go well.

_"Yeah? What the Hell else could go wrong?" _

I gave chuckle, but it sounded hollow even to my own ears. "You know of Jasper's sire, Maria, right?"

_"Yeah. What's going on now? She lookin' for her major?" _

"Somethin' like that… She thinks Alice is Jasper's mate. She's creating an army of Immortal Children to storm up to Alaska."

Instantly, I heard the sound of five sets of heels come crashing down the staircase I knew was near the phone. _"Jesus fuck. An army of… motherfucker." _

"That's not all. The Volturi is going to kill them."

_"Well, that's not so bad, we'll just have to hide Alice." _

_"You stupid fuck. If there are Immortal Children _or _Maria coming, Aro's going to come too! He'll bring the whole guard. He'll know,"_ I heard Tanya hiss at him in anger.

"Right now, our seer isn't exactly lucid, so piecing together her sentences isn't the easiest job since she doesn't use any prepositions; however, that's mostly what we can get out of her. Jasper and Maria."

There was a rumbling noise as the phone changed holders. "Is there anything else we need to know? I'm sure you want to get back to taking care of the girl."

"Yeah, Alice can't go to London whenever it is she's been planning on going because some plane's going to crash. Edward'll die if he goes to New York. And something about Garrett warning Eleazar about eating a girl in a village or eating a village full of girls. I have no clue what the fuck that was about. I don't know if some girl has to die or if he needs to stay out of human territory. Sorry, I might get more as she calms down."

Worried was the main thing I heard as she continued speaking. "Has this happened before?" Was it for my seer or hers?

"Yeah, but she'll be fine. It happens every so often. When she comes across new people." New people with new gifts.

"Is that why you haven't introduced her to us? After all, we already know she's a seer."

"One of the reasons… look, I gotta go. Vomiting seer to look after." That, and- "Oh, Garrett! You drank from drunk humans, did you get drunk?"

There was much laughter. "Fuck, man, really? You aren't switching up your diet are ya?"

"No, nothing' like that. Just want to know if its possible so I can know if it'll be worth it to get a grizzly drunk."

"I'm going to say yes just to watch that. If you do it, have someone tape it so we can watch it later. Fuck." Asshole. Eh, I would've done it even if it wasn't possible. Might add some flavor.

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**Ending Author's Notes:** On my profile, there is a link to the _'General Affection'_ blog. It has pictures and links to stuff. Check the 'Extras' tab and the side-bar.

_Review! Please? _


	17. 16 Clan

**Disclaimer: **The _Twilight Saga_ is owned by Stephanie Meyer. I don't happen to be her; therefore, I cannot possibly own it.

**Rating: **Rated 'T' for 'Teen'. May change later.

**Genre:** Action/Adventure, Angst, Family, Fluff, Friendship, First Time, General, High School, Horror, Humor, Hurt/Comfort, Romance, Supernatural, Vampires

**Warnings:** Adult Content, Blood, Discriminatory Language, Violence

**Pairings: **Jasper/Bella, Emmett/Rosalie, Carlisle/Esme, Peter/Charlotte

**Summary:** Your typical story. Boy meets girl. They fall in love. A baby is quickly made. What happens when the boy's a vampire? What happens when said vampire is killed before the baby's born? Renée doesn't know what's going to happen to her baby, but Nahuel promises to keep it safe from his father. Jasper/ Bella

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**Author's Notes:** Sorry for the long wait.

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**16. Clan**

**Bella's P. O. V.**

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I growled at her, daring her to approach me as I stood. Nine days of bed-rest was long enough. Two days ago I had been at one hundred percent, minus the serious need to feed. I felt like I have gone insane from hunger ever since having thrown up all that venom. And, jeez, I needed a good run! Something to stretch my muscles.

Forever would I be thankful to my parents for delivering all those warnings to the Denalis. If my father hadn't told Garrett to warn Peter about Jasper, I would've lost my mate before I even really had him. I might not have him right now, but I knew I would in time. I needed to get my life in order, get my mess sorted out, before got a hankering for getting into his.

"Should you not be laying down?" Sure Kachiri, send in Zafrina to defend Senna against my wrath.

I growled at her as well. "No, I'm fine. I've rested enough. If you're so worried, go get me something to eat. A couple somethin's. I feel like I'm starving."

Instantly, the two of them raced out of the room to find me some food. Hopefully it would be a couple of predators. There was a part of my mind honed in on them, seeing what they'd be getting me. Seems they were having a little competition to find the biggest warm blooded animal for me to feed on.

While they were having their little pissing contest, I sought out the eldest Amazon Sister. She was sitting on the edge of the railing, holding still like vampires were so fond of. There were occasions when I caught different members of my family in the same position I left them in. As soon as I sat down, she turned to me with a somber expression. It wasn't something uncommon on her face. "I no longer lead my sisters."

"I know."

She sighed, seeming to be at ease with this revelation. "You command your clan very well."

I went to answer her, but got stuck on a word she used. "Clan?"

"Yes." There was a nod in response before she explained herself. "Emmett and Rosalie are their own coven. Nahuel and Huilen are their own coven. My sisters and I are our own coven. However, you lead us all, these different sectors, as one unit. We are your clan members and you lead us."

It made more sense than what I had been thinking of our abnormal group. "Thank you." She'd be much easier to give my bite to than Nahuel had been. She'd welcome it. I wasn't sure why it was so different with her, perhaps her old age was part of it. "You'll still lead your sisters, but it will be when I am away. I'll watch over you, warn you if an enemy is coming. I expect nothing of you except that you listen to me. I merely want to protect you, to love you, like I do my family."

She nodded, smiling at me. "We desire to honor you. We long to follow you as a shadow does."

"You are my family, my _clan mates_." That would take some getting used to with saying it. "If you feel pain, I wish to take it on my own self. Whatever your desires are, I want provide you with them. You are all pails full of diamonds and pearls that I'll guard until the end of my existence. Everyone within my clan is. I cannot take orders from another and I don't want to order you either, but I do expect a certain obedience that comes from being your leader.

"I'll never lead you to your death or the deaths of your sisters. Losing them would be like cutting off my limbs and burning them. I know how you three are with me. You walk close to me so that I don't fall and break. If I'm hungry or thirsty, you want to hunt me something to eat so that I don't have to exhaust myself doing it, but you don't because you know I have to do it so that I don't start getting sick.

"You worry too much about me and get frustrated when I do something you feel is too dangerous for my human side." She turned away, embarrassed that I had seen that side of her. "You're all like that. Every single person in my clan." Did I radiate some energy that had people trying to protect and provide for me?

We sat there, listening to the crickets chirp and my heartbeat drum. Once in a while, she'd crack a dry humor joke about the humans she fed on, resulting in a giggle from me. Occasionally, I'd point out that whichever section of vegetation that needed pruning and receiving a vision of the sisters working on that later. I'd always sigh, knowing they'd still do it even if I complained.

"Will you mark us?"

"Hm?"

"Will you mark us? You have bitten the rest of your clan. Will you do the same to us?" If it weren't for the pleading face she sported, I might've made some kind of tasteless remark about a group of vampires being a 'murder', not a 'coven' or 'clan'.

"Most likely. There hasn't been reason to lately. I haven't foreseen any danger for you to come across as I did with Nahuel and Huilen. You haven't been in a life threatening situation since I've known you like my parents were in the late fifties. It'll happen, but I won't do it until I feel the need. I won't be purposefully causing any of you pain."

We went back to our comfortable silence with me swinging my legs childishly over the edge of the porch. Not six minutes went by before she inquired about something else.

"Do you have a crest? I know that the Cullens do. A few other, older, covens do as well."

This was something I had been contemplating for quite some time. "Not currently. I've got some designs, but nothing's been set as of yet. My father said that he'd have his scarred into him. I'm hoping that he was joking because I don't think I could do something like that to him."

She appeared speculative for a long moment. "I could. I would have to practice on others first and I would have to collect a vampire's jaw, but it is a probability that either I or my sisters could." I had no doubt about that. I also knew the perfect people for her to practice on.

But first, I'd have to inform the Denalis that Maria had changed her mind. She'd be changing her approach in how to destroy the Major's supposed mate. Unluckily for The Mexican Goddess of the Vampires, Jasper's mate would strike first.

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**November 1994**

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It was time. They were coming. Soon at that. My family was ready. We had been preparing ever since the two sisters came back from their little competition; Senna had won, and I got new shoes. Snake skin with rabbit fur lining the insides. That had been the most disgusting meal of my life. Worse than mushy green beans. But, Zafrina's giant reptile had been outdone by Senna's small bear. Apparently a circus had been traveling along on a road and a few animals had escaped. It was how I had found that gorgeous kitty and Senna found the bear. The snake had been a natural predator in this neck of South America.

She had learned that I didn't do any cold blooded creature other than alligators and crocodiles. It was unnatural for vampires to go after anything that wasn't warm blooded, but it had been the biggest creature she could find. Maybe she'll find me a python before I leave. I could most likely get a designer to make me some heels. Or some rattlesnake cowboy boots. I would happily sport those everyday for the next decade. Mama might have some problems with that though; she was always trying to get me to stop ignoring fashion.

Their preparations mostly consisted of refining their fighting skills, while mine dealt with getting my illusions up to snuff. They had to be as close to faultless as I could get, as others would be viewing them. Over the past two years, I had worked and worked, trying to at least perfect a couple of illusions. One was being completely healthy without anyone knowing what I was trying to achieve; the other was being a vampire. I would create this appearance of my pale skin being without the blush on my cheeks from my human half, the black of hunger in my eyes instead of the chocolate brown I sported due to genetics, and the silence of an non-beating heart even though my parents were so prideful of the working one I have. Typically, I would stick to the shadows, it not being uncommon for vampires to avoid sunlight, so that I wouldn't have to add in the shining sparkles as well.

The sisters had mentioned that had they not known I wasn't a vampire, they would never have known any different than what I constantly projected. Once I got a hold of how to properly delude the others around me in what they were seeing, doing this with other visions for them to see became as easy as breathing at a much quicker pace. And, with more practice, it would be entirely effortless. Right now, we were running out of time for practice.

My father was restless and paced along the south edge of our clan line-up. Seeing his agitation wasn't the most calming of actions and my nerves were already shot to Hell and back from the past two months of constant questions about today.

Today being Joham's and Serena's arrival.

They would have to die today, much to Nahuel's disappointment. He didn't desire his sister's death, but he knew she was far too faithful to their father to continue existing any other way. Fortunately for him, I wouldn't as him to put the girl out of her misery; I'd be doing that myself. The art of killing, I would be performing that on my own. I wouldn't ask my family to take a life, especially not like this. My mother and Huilen were lovers, not fighters.

"Are they any closer?" my mother asked.

"_No."_ I let the word travel, not actually speaking it, through an illusion. My hiding place was in a tree behind their arrival spot. They would never know I was here. Making myself disappear was another fantasy I had achieved. However, it was _much_ more difficult to hide another person, especially if they moved around.

Suddenly, there were two new sparks underneath my mental shield. One much more vivacious than the other; however, both of their personality traits and emotions were along the greedy and manipulative lines. Just what were they up to? It took me a moment to realize just who these people were. Duh Bella, the people we've been waiting on for more than four hours.

"_They're here."_ It was like a whisper, quiet and picked up through an echo in the wind. Automatically, Daddy quit his pacing and took the lead with my mother by his side. Unlike meeting the Amazon Sisters, I wouldn't be joining my parents head on.

'_Why not? You could defeat them with ease. Take them down before they come here.' _No, it would be cruel to Nahuel not to allow him to bid his sister goodbye. _'And it isn't crueler to force him to watch you kill his eldest sibling?'_ I'll blind him. Him watching was never an option on the table. _'He'll resent you in the years to come. You're killing his family.'_ So be it. If losing his love is the result of keeping him safe, then I would still take this risk.

My father was almost bouncing on the balls of his feet, itching for a battle. After me, he had the first claim in taking another's head. Typically, that energy would be endearing. Right now, it was the opposite. If anything, they'd all just get in the way. _'Which is why you should get it over with now.'_ Shut up Peter's gift.

Once they were in my line of sight, I ensured that they didn't know I was here, perched in my tree. Joham would be surprised to see me. Hell, he'd be surprised to see these additional vampires. It was always Huilen and Nahuel, both too wary to allow others in their duo. Well, he was in for a big surprise.

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**Ending Author's Notes:** Sorry for the long wait, but as you know, I have a limited access to internet. This is no longer. I now have regular access as I have moved to a new location; however, my updates won't be reliable as I have a new work schedule with many more hours than I used to have. My chapters will be sporadic, but I will try to work on my stories when I can. Thank you.

I at least have a couple chapters hand written out, and I merely have to type them up. Even though they are technically complete, I'll be editing them as I type them, which will take much longer as I try to add more detail into what I type than what I write.

I have an in-depth plan for exactly what I want to happen for my chapters up to Chapter 20. Hopefully, you'll like what's to come.

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I have a tumblr; there is a link to the blog for this story on my profile. It has pictures and links to stuff. Just look under the _'Extras' _tab or the sidebar.

_Review! Please? _


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